


. , °-*- * ■■ - " ' \^^ , . „ 



o'' 







■' ' ^ A 






v*~^C)^ 



^°..- 



%'°^„,:*^^ ^^'-v-vv^ '\^'„,.*\o^' 









: "'^.^ : %^- /: '^^~<^ %'^- '"'^-.^ :^ 

,'^/.;^<;-.% /..v:«;i%°-' >°\-'i;;;;-:\- /\ ■'- . <vi^:-.%\/.-: 



■'c^ -/--^ 






.0 o « ;,'.,-]" 


























OC 









xOo, 




-^ > . ,®B^^ ■ CO. _ _ 









<!~^ "^ct 







., ^^ ' 






I0(^ 





'(PUl.U<. 




THE UNITED STATES 



BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY 



T 



PORTRAIT GALLERY 



Eminent and Self-made Men. 



MINNESOTA VOLUME. 



NEW YORK AND CHICAGO: 
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

1879. 







ifT-^ 



5t 



PREFACE 



IN publishing the Minnesota volume of The United States Biographical 
Dictionary, we confidently believe that it will be recognized and accepted 
as the best work of the kind which the press has produced. Our aim has been 
to furnish lacts and reliable data, concerning the leading and prominent men 
throughout the state; and, in making our selection for this purpose, we have 
been governed by an earnest desire to present a galaxy of really representa- 
tive men. That it contains the names of all whom it should, or that it is 
entirely errorless, we do not claim ; for to produce such a work, is probably 
impossible. But that it is as nearly perfect and complete as indefatigable 
labor, and lavish expenditure of time and money can make it, we feel assured. 

Minnesota is comparatively a young state, yet is she unsurpassed in rapidity 
of development and growth, toward a prominence which commands the atten- 
tion and admiration of all her sister states. 

In the short space of twenty-five years, her broad acres have been reclaimed 
from the savages, and made to produce an annual yield of grain second to no 
other soil on the face of the earth. Not only this, but in all the arts and 
sciences, that go to make a great commonwealth, has her advance been marvel- 
ous. To whom is the honor due for this almost unparalleled progress .? To 
whose foresight, energy, enterprise and influence, does Minnesota owe her 
gratifying prosperity.? She owes it to those men whose patience and endur- 
ance withstood danger and misfortune, privation and hunger; to those men 
whose bravery was proof against the savage assaults of the wily red men ; and 
these are the men whose honored names adorn the following pages. 

The sketches are perfectly reliable, as the information used has been ob- 
tained from the subjects themselves, or from near relatives and friends ; the 
steel-plate portraits are all in the engraver's best style, and life-like pictures 
of the originals ; and in the general make-up of the book, none but the best 
materials have been used ; so that, taking it all in all, and considering the great 
difficulties to be overcome in producing such a work, we flatter ourselves that 
this volume will take an assured position beside those previously issued ; giv- 
ing general satisfaction to all, but more especially to those who are personally 
interested. 



THE UNITED STATES 

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY 



MINNESOTA VOLUME. 



GOV. JOHN S. PILLSBURY, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

TOHN SARGENT PILLSBURY, governor of the State of Minnesota, is a 
J *native of Sutton, Merrimac county. New Hampshire, his birth dating on the 
2gth of July, 1828. His parents were John Pillsbury and Susan, his wife, nee 
Wadleigh. His ancestors were ot the original Puritan stock, the American ori- 
gin of the family being traced to Joshua Pillsbury, who came from England in 
1640 and settled in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He had received from the 
crown a grant of land situated in that town, and it remains in the family name 
and possession, intact, to this day. His descendants have tilled many posts of 
varied trust and responsibility, the family being generally noted for sterling in- 
tegrity and great force of character. The great-grandfather of our subject was 
Micajah Pillsbury, who settled in Sutton, New Hampshire, in 1790, being one of 
the earliest emigrants to that part of the state. His father, John Pillsbury, was 
by occupation a manufacturer, of a mechanical turn of mind, and afterward a farmer. 
He always took a great interest in political questions, and was a man of consid- 
erable prominence in both state and local affairs, holding office almost continu- 
ously for many years. He lived respected by all who knew him, and died at 
Sutton, New Hampshire, in 1857, regretted by a host of friends. 

The educational advantages of John S. were limited, during his boyhood, to 
the common schools of his native town, — what he attained in after-life was by 
reading, self-teaching and close observation, and to such good purpose has his 
time been devoted, that he fills the executive chair of the state with honor and 
credit to himself and to the people whose votes placed him there. 

He left school early and commenced to learn the painter's trade ; when about 
sixteen years old he abandoned painting and entered the mercantile business, 



6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

that beinc more in harmony with his tastes and inclinations. His first engage- 
ment was as salesman in a store in Warner, where he remained until he was 
twenty-one years of age, when he entered into a partnership w iih Waller Harri- 
mon — afterward p-overnor of New Hampshire — which continued for two years. 
\\c then removed to Concord, where for four years he engaged in the business 
of merchant tailor and cloth dealer. At the end of this period, Mr. Pillsbury 
came to the conclusion that the west presented much more flattering opportuni- 
ties for voun^j- men starting in business life than any eastern points. Starting, 
therefore, in 1853, he made an extended tour of observation, in search of a desir- 
able place to locate, throughout the western and northwestern states, and in 
June, 1S55, came to Minnesota, with which he was so pleased (as are all others 
who see it) that he determined to settle permanently at Saint Anthony, as being 
a more desirable place to live than any other he had \isited. Here he engaged 
in the hardware business at once, and continued prosperously until 1857. That 
year was one that is marked " The year of the great panic," which was followed by 
such terrible financial distress as dethroned thousands of the best business houses 
in the country; but Mr. Pillsbury was called on to bear a much greater misfor- 
tune than the panic could bring, namely, a twenty-two thousand dollar loss by fire, 
with no insurance. This great loss, coming at such an unfortunate period of 
commercial depression, might have had the effect of making a financial wreck ot 
a less determinetl man, but its effect on Mr. Pillsbur)- was simply to call forth 
greater exertions, and proved that he was hilly equal to the emergency. It a 
man enjoys continued smooth sailing, his best characteristics otten remain unde- 
veloped, and he attains success simply because he meets with no obstacles. It 
our subject had not met this loss, his quality might have been unproven. But 
when occasion required it, he brought to his aid those latent powers of recupera- 
tion which, under more favorable conditions, might have remained hidden, and 
triumphed over the most adverse circumstances. By hard, honest labor, sup- 
ported by an indefatigable energy, he met his obligations and paid in full every 
one of his creditors, and in five years he was again a prosperous, successful mer- 
chant, acknowledged as one of the best and most honorable business men in the 
state. In 1858 he was elected a member of the city council, and by re-elections 
held that position six years. 

Mr. Pillsbury, when the rebellion broke out, rendered elificient service in or- 
ganizing the 1st, 2d and 3d regiments of Minnesota Volunteers, and in 1862 he, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 7 

with others, raised and equipped a mounted company, which was dispatched to 
the frontier to fight the Indians. 

In 1863 Mr. Pillsbury was appointed one of the regents of the University of 
Minnesota. The affairs of this institution were at this time ahnost hopelessly 
embarrassed ; so much so, in fact, that the legislature had previously authorized 
the regents " to convey any or all of the lands " of the state endowment in order 
to pay its enormous debt. Governor Pillsbury, by the exercise of such prudential 
and economical measures and wise supervision of finances as he would have 
given to his own private business, and by earnest, faithful work, soon succeeded 
in placing it on a sure foundation, without resorting to the extreme measures 
granted by the legislature, and its present gratifying condition is largely owing 
to his faithful and prudent labor in its behalf 

In 1872 the governor engaged in the manufacture of Hour with his nephew, 
Mr. C. A. Pillsbury, under the firm name of C. A. Pillsbury and Co., which still 
continues, doing a successful business. 

In politics. Governor Pillsbury has been connected with the republican party 
since its inception. He was elected state senator from Hennepin county in 1863, 
and was re-elected for the four following terms; again in 1872 and the succeedino- 
term to the same office. He must indeed have been an efiicient representative 
to have been so repeatedly honored with the confidence of his constituents, and 
comment would be superfluous. The comprehensive views and practical sagacity 
which marked his long career as a legislator led to a widely prevalent demand for 
his promotion to a higher sphere of usefulness, and in 1875 Mr. Pillsbury received 
the unsolicited nomination of the republican party for the office of governor, and 
was elected to that position by twelve thousand majority over his opponent, D. 
L. Buell. In 1877, notwithstanding the democrats and Independents united their 
forces on Wm. L. Banning, Governor Pillsbury was re-elected by an increased 
majority, running about eighteen thousand ahead of the combined opposition. 

From the first, the character of Governor Pillsbury 's administration has been 
marked by his strong opposition to legislative extravagance and his resolute veto 
of appropriations made in reckless disregard of the condition of the public 
finances. The distinctive aims and results with which his name will be identified 
are shown by his earnest appeals for the honest settlement of the state's dishon- 
ored railroad bonds, by his persistent and skillful efforts for protection against 
the grasshopper scourge and the succor of its victims, his sedulous care of the 



S THE LWI Ihl) SIATRS niOGRAP IIICAL DfCT/ONARY. 

public faith by the frequent use of his personal credit in financial emergencies, 
and ilie en ation of the office of public examiner, upon his earnest recommenda- 
tion, for the discovery and prompt correction of abuses in the management of 
the funds of counties and public institutions. Without the eclat that wins 
ephemeral applause, Governor Pillsbury possesses the breadth of view and the 
unerrino- iud>T^ment wliich insure durable results. His organizing and executive 
abilities are of the first order. 

He inaucrurated the movement for a conference of governors at Omaha, which 
Ictl to the creation of a national commission of scientists for the- investigation of 
the o-rasshopper question. He ascertained the dire condition of the grasshopper 
sufferers by personal visits to their destitute homes in mid-winter, issued eloquent 
appeals to public charity in their behalf, and organized an efficient plan of volun- 
teer aid, through which more than six thousand persons were rescued from a sit- 
uation verging upon starvation. He will be distinguished as the most paternal 
of all the governors of Minnesota, as well as one of the ablest, and his name is 
destined to be cherished in the hearts of a grateful people for his thorough devo- 
tion to their interests during one of the most trying periods of their frontier ex- 
perience. 

Governor Pillsbury's last formal inaugural took place in the opera house at 
Saint Paul, on the i ith of January, 1878. From the masterly address of the Gov- 
ernor on that occasion, we make the following extracts, as showing the position 
he occupies on a few of the leading questions of importance to the state, and his 
radical views concerning the payment of the state bonded debt. After making a 
gratifying comparison of the present with the previous year, and noting the vari- 
ous causes for renewed confidence and the great natural resources of the state, 
he says : 

To gratefully recognize the bountiful agency of .almighty God in such numberless' blessings is 
not less the duty than the wholesome impulse of an appreciative people. Indeed, considering Na- 
ture's first munificence of .climate and physical attributes, and the subsequent success which has 
marked the formation and growth of our state, a cheerful and frequent reference to such advantages 
is but the healthful exercise of that ready and sober good sense which becomes a rational and happy 
people. Glad and hopeful, however, as we should feel in view of the prosperity of the present and the 
prospects of the future, thoughtful men will feel not less deeply the responsibilities imposed by them. 
So rapid and energetic is the recuperation of our people from a prostrate industrial condition, that the 
lessons of the past are prone to be overlooked. Recovery from business depression, for this reason, 
is never unattended with serious danger, and it may indeed be questioned whether seasons of excited 
activity, all things considered, are not really more detrimental to a durable public welfare than those 
marked by slower and more cautious movements. Hap[)y the people who may prove sufficiently wise 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 9 

to profit b)' both — to reap victory equally from adversity and from prosperity, and with whom the 
bright promise of hope shall prove a guide rather than a snare. With such a people the worthy use 
of what has been already gained is at once an acceptable offering for the past and an inviting guar- 
antee of the future. 

* * * * * * 

These considerations impel me to warn my fellow-citizens against a repetition of those errors of 

the past with which we are all too familiar. It is obvious to all persons of even casual observation 

that the most fruitful source of the wide popular distress from which we in Minnesota are happily 

emerging has been the over-indulgence of the universal propensity to incur debt. 

****** 

It is not claimed that the purposes for which much of this indebtedness has been incurred are 
not desirable or worthy objects. They attest indeed the characteristics of enterprising and high- 
toned communities, and when kept w'ithin judicious bounds, the means thus resorted to in furtherance 
of these objects are effective aids to commendable public progress. But the eagerness with which 
both private and public debts are incurred without due consideration of the time or needs of the sit- 
uation or the adaptation of means to ends, is unquestionably the crying evil of the period and the 
most potent cause of financial disorders. 

****** 

In view of the disasters which have manifestly resulted from these causes, I feel it my duty to 
appeal earnestly to all classes of our people to heed the costly lessons of the past. 

Let us, with one accord, turn to simpler and nobler ways. Let us endeavor to correct that grow- 
ing aversion to manual labor which is making effeminate idlers of our young men. Let us vindicate 
the dignity and manful status of patient toil. I,et us show the false attractions which tend to over- 
crowd our cities, and expose the flimsy glamour which lures honest labor from manly self-support to 
a condition of beggarly dependence. Let us frown upon senseless extravagance in public and private 
affairs, and attest the character of rational economy as both an essential condition of solvency and 
an attribute of a higher civilization. Let us be superior to that flattery of a shallow local pride which 
induces struggling communities to oppress themselves with the cost of premature improvements. Let 
us discourage the ruinous disposition, especially of small and poor townships and counties, to burden 
themselves with debt in aid of visionary railroad schemes. Let us resolve to pay as we go, and dis- 
continue the seductive expedient of escaping present difficulty by the easy postponement of solemn 
obligations ; and above all, let us resolve not to afford the humiliating spectacle too often presented 
by communities which rush into debt with a precipitancy equaled only by the disgraceful expedients 
with which they seek to escape its honest payment. Every consideration of expediency and honor 
should impel us to seek that profit from experience without which the advent of special fortune may 
prove a curse rather than a blessing. The measure of our success shall attest our progress toward a 
deserved and enduring prosperity. 

****** 

I feel impelled by the convictions upon the subject expressed in my preceding messages to renew 
my recommendation for an early settlement of the indebtedness represented by our dishonored rail- 
road bonds. The measure proposed for this purpose by the last legislature, and submitted to the peo- 
ple in June last, was rejected, as you are aware, by an overwhelming popular vote. This resulted, I 
am persuaded, from a prevalent misapprehension respecting the real nature and provisions of the pro- 
posed plan of adjustment. I should be sorry indeed to be forced to the conviction that the people, 
by this act, intended other than their disapproval of the particular plan of settlement submitted to 
them. For, in my opinion, no public calamity, no visitation of grasshoppers, no wholesale destruction 
or insidious pestilence, could possibly inflict so fatal a blow upon our state as the deliberate repudia- 
tion of her solemn obligations. It would be a confession more damaging to the character of a gov- 
ernment of the people than the assaults of its worst enemies. With the loss of public honor, little 
could remain worthy of preservation. Assuming therefore, as I gladly do, that this vote of the people 



lO THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

indicated a |nirpose not to repudiate the debt itself, but simply to condemn the proposed plan for its 
payment, I shall be happy to co-operate in any practicable measure looking to an honorable and final 
adjustment of this vexed question. 

The questions that remain are rather tliose of expediency than of principle. They are more or 
less connected with measures of finance and the currency, and with the honest exercise of conceded 
functions. In the settlement of these, let the voice of Minnesota be heard for honest money, for re- 
demption of the nation's pledges, and for that just administration of the government which consults 
the exigencies of the public service in preference to those of political parties. Whatever may be 
thought of particular means used for the purpose, the sincere efforts of a patriotic president to attain 
these ends deserve the hearty support of all good citizens. In my judgment, our danger lies in too much 
rather than in too little congressional action. Experience disproves the efficacy of financial pana- 
ceas. Untampered with, monetary disorders work their own wholesome adjustment by a law as uner- 
ring as that by which unhindered water finds its level. Adherence to well-tested laws of trade, and 
honest persistence in the better conduct of affairs, cannot fail to save the credit and eventually win 
the applause of the nation. 

Governor Pillsbury i.s not a communicant of any church, but is a member of 
the First Congregational society, Mrs. Pillsbury being a member of the church. 

He was married in Warner, New Hampshire, on the 3d of November, 1856, 
to Miss Mahala Fisk, daughter of Captain John Fisk and Sarah, his wife, nee 
Goodhue. Mrs. Fisk is one of the descendants of Rev. John Fisk, who emi- 
grated from Suffolk, England, and settled in Windham, Massachusetts, in 1637. 
The fruits of the Governor's marriaye are four children, as follows: Ada, 
born on the 4th of October, 1859; Susie May, born on the 23d of June, 1863; 
Sadie Belle, born on the 30th of fune, 1866; and Alfred b'isk, born on the 20th 
of October, 1868. 



CHARLES W. W. BORUP, 

SAIXr PAUL. 

CHARLES WILLIAM WULFF BORUP, deceased, was a native of Den- 
mark; born in Copenhagen, on the 20th of December, 1806. His father was 
Marcus Wulff, — (by a law in Denmark a child must bear his stepfather's in con- 
nection with his father's name) — whose family was of high social distinction, its 
members being among the dignitaries of the kingdom. The subject of this brief 
memoir received a thorough classical and mtxlical education, intending to be a 
physician. At twenty-one years of age, left his native country ; went to the Danish 
island of Saint Thomas; remained there one season, an tl, on account ot the cli- 
mate, concluded to pass the summer in New York city, intending to return to 
the tropical island ; but he liked our countrv and people so well that he always 



THE UN J JED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. II 

remained here. He tarried in New York city nearly two years, when, being fur- 
nished with letters to Robert Stuart, an associate of John Jacob Astor in the 
American Fur Company, and stationed at Mackinac, Michigan, he, in 1829, went 
to that place, and became attached as a clerk to so-called "Northern Outfit," which 
comprised the district of trade with the Chippewas between Lake Superior and 
the Mississippi river, and as tar north as the line ol the British possessions. He 
was placed in charge ot trading posts on Rainy Lake and other points, and by 
his business tact and talents he steadily advanced until he became chief agent of 
the F"ur Company on Lake Superior, with his residence at La Pointe. 

In 184.8 he removed from La Pointe to Saint Paul, and here formed a busi- 
ness connection with P. Chouteau, junior, and Co., of Saint Louis, — a connection 
which lasted six or seven years. On settling here with his family, he found 
society in a rough state, and very little regard paid to the Sabbath, except on 
the part of a small number of people. As it respected the business under his 
control, he established a new order of thinos not allowing; the boats of his com- 
pany to load or unload on Sunday, and teams coming in on Saturday night or 
Sunday, to receive merchandise or articles of any kind, had to wait till Monday 
morning for the transaction of business. Steamboat captains and others com- 
plained of this regulation of his, and undertook to break it up, but failed. Mr. 
Borup believed in the sanctity ot the Sabbath, and so tar as he had control of 
matters, would not allow it to be violated. 

In 1854 the banking house of Borup and Oakes was established in Saint Paul, 
the first institution of the kind in the territory of Minnesota ; and in 1857, when 
the financial crash came, commencing with the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust 
Company, and which tailure caused this bank to suspend, its owners pursued a 
very honorable course. After being closed a short time, the bank was reopened, 
and Messrs. Borup and Oakes paid every dollar of their liabilities, — an act which 
established the credit of this house on the very firmest basis. 

Dr. Borup died of disease of the heart, on the 6th of July, 1859, but the bank- 
ing business was continued in the old firm-name until 1866. 

A neighbor of his, who had known him long and intimately, thus spoke of 

Dr. Borup at the time of his demise : 

He was a Ivind and affectionate husband and a fond and indulgent fatlier. A friend to the poor, 
his contributions were liberally but unostentatiously bestowed; a firm believer in the doctrines of 
Christianity, he was ever among tine first to furnish means for their dissemination. As a citizen, he 
was irreproachable; an ardent republican and lover of liberty, he delighted in depicting the favora- 



12 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

ble contrast presented by the United States, when compared w itii the freest form of European gov- 
ernment. The " Old Settlers " have lost one of their number, who has manifested a lively interest in 
the association, and at least one vacant seat will be found when they next meet, and many warm 
friends will mourn the departure of Dr. Borup. 

He was a warm friend of the young people, antl did all he could to encourage 
them in the line of social and mental improvement. He was a great lo\er of 
music, and, believing in its refining influence, did ;dl he could to stimul;ite the 
cultivation of this science in others, and especialK' in the young, who never had 
a truer friend in .Saint Paul. 

Dr. ]5orup was married at Mackinac, on the i /th of July, 1832, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Beaulieu, daughter of Bazil Beaulieu, a French trader, formerly of the Ameri- 
can Fur Company. The fruits of this union were eleven children, nine of them 
yet living. All are married but the youngest son, Harold, who is with his eldest 
brother, Theodore, the latter being a post trader. Sophie, the eldest daughter, 
is the wife of General J. H. Simpson, of the United States Engineer Corps ; Vir- 
ginia is the wife of Richards Gordon, merchant of .Saint Paul ; Gustav is an agent 
of the Erie and South Shore Railroad line, with residence in .Saint Paul ; Marion 
is the wife of Lieutenant C. T. Hutchins, of the United States navy ; Julie is the 
wife of Captain Hartley, of the United States army ; Marcus is a traveling agent, 
residing in Saint Paul; and Henry Dana belongs to the United States army. 
Marcus was the fourth American child born in Saint Paul, and the first, accord- 
ing to the Historical Society's records, to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. 

Mrs. Borup is a member of the Episcopal church. She was left in very com- 
fortable circumstances, is surrounded by .several of her children, and to all of 
them she has been a true mother. 



W\ 



%^^ GENERAL HENRY H. SIBLEY, 



/ SA/NT PAUL. 

THE man the most early, most fully ami most honorably identified with the 
histor\- of Minnesota is Henry Hastings .Sible\-, who was born in Detroit, 
Michigan, on the 20th of P'ebruar)-, 181 i. His father, Solomon .Sibley, a native 
of Massachusetts, came to Ohio in 1795 ; settled in Michigan in 1797, and was a 
member of the first legislature of the Northwest territory ; was a delegate to 
congress in 1S20, and judge of the supreme court of Michigan territory from 





BKIG. GEN, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 15 

1824 to 1836. In 1802 Judge Sibley married, at Marietta, Ohio, Miss Sarah W. 
Sproat, daughter of Colonel Evenezer Sproat, a distinguished officer of the revo- 
lution, and granddaughter of Abraham Whipple, the oldest commodore in the 
revolutionary navy. 

The Sibleys were originally fri)m England, and among the early settlers in 
the old colony ot Massachusetts. Judge Sibley commanded a company of militia 
in Detroit at the time of Hull's surrender. He was one of the first two lawyers 
who settled in that city, and was desirous that Henry should follow that profes- 
sion ; but the son, after spending two years in studj'ing the English branches 
and classics in private with Rev. R. F. Cadle, of Detroit, and one year in his 
father's office, found that the law was not a congenial occupation, and, by his 
father's permission, abandoned it. This decision of the parent, as a writer has 
well remarked, "gave to Minnesota her honored pioneer; one whose history is 
so interwoven with her own that to write the one is also, ipso facto, to record the 
other." 

The Sproats were pioneers in Ohio, and the Sibleys in Michigan, and young 
Henry, as some writer has suggested, seems to have inherited a love of frontier 
life, he having from boyhood a strong predilection for field sports, hunting beincr 
his choicest recreation. His adventures in the chase of the buffalo, elk, bear, 
deer, and other animals, in company with the Dakota or Sioux Indians, would 
suffice to fill a volume. 

At seventeen years of age he went to Sault Sainte Marie, and was employed 
as clerk in a store ; the next year connected himself with the American Fur 
Company at Mackinac; in 1834 became a member of that company, of which 
Ramsey Crooks was then president, and Hercules L. Dousman and Joseph Ro- 
lette, junior, with young .Sibley, were joint partners. Mr. Sibley's more immediate 
connection in business was with Mr. Dousman, who was located at Prairie du 
Chien. Mr. Sibley made his headquarters at Mendota, five miles west of Saint 
Paul, reaching that place on the 7th of November, 1834. He came all the way 
from Prairie du Chien, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, on horseback, 
passing only one house inhabited by white people on the route. Besides the 
ofarrison at Fort Snelline, a few fur traders and French-Canadian voyaeeurs con- 
stituted the whites then found in what is now the State of Minnesota, with its 
area of eighty-three thousand five hundred square miles and its population of 
seven hundred thousand souls. Over this vast territory roamed the Chippewas 



I 6 TJIR UNITED STATES B/OGRAPH fCAI. DICTIONARY. 

and the powerful Ijanils ot the Dakotas or Sioux, with whom the American Fur 
Company carried on the trade in turs and pehries, and for that purpose had es- 
tablislied posts not only throughout Minnesota, Init in the eastern and northern 
parts of what is now Dakota territorw The subject of this sketch was in 
partnership with Mr. Dousman nearly twent\- years. During the first two \ears 
in Minnesota Mr. Sibley lived in a log house at what is now known as Mendota; 
in 1H36 he built the first private dwelling-house of stone in Minnesota. This is 
still standing, and is used tor the home of the sisters of one of the orders of the 
Catholic church, and also as a school-house for the children of the village, who 
are taueht by these ladies. The buildiuir is solidly constructed, is in a orood 
state of preservation, and, being the oldest prixate residence in Minnesota, is in- 
vested with more than ordinar\- interest. 

Before leaving Mackinac, Mr. Sibley was appointed justice of the peace by 
Governor Porter, ot Michigan territory, and in 1 838 Cio\ernor Chambers, of Iowa 
territory, appointed him to the same office ; all the territory west of the Missis- 
sippi being then included in that territory. He was subsequently appointed, by 
the same official, captain of the tirst company of the 1st Regiment of Iowa Cav- 
air)', and he raised and drilled a body of seventy-tive men, all of whom were thor- 
ough horsemen and sharpshooters. 

In 1848 Mr. Sibley was elected a delegate to congress from Wisconsin terri- 
tory, the state of that name having been previously admitted into the Union, lea\- 
ing some of the organized counties outside of the prescribed boundaries. After 
SOUK; discussion and dela\' he obtained his seat ; represented the territor\- one 
term; secured during that term the organization of the Territory of Minnesota, 
the act pa,ssing congress on the 3d of March, 1849; was elected a delegate from 
the new territory in 1849; re-elected in 1851, and served in all nearU' live years. 

While in congress Mr. Sibley was a liberal contributor to the newspaper 
press, and diil much to enlighten congress and the countr\- in regard to the cli- 
mate, soil and material resources of Minnesota, and was thus enabled to secure 
larger appropriations tor the territor\' than would otherwise have been granted. 

lie was a member of the territorial legislature in 1855, rejiresenting Dakota 
count)-. In 1857 he was ])resident of the democratic branch of the convention 
which framed a state constitution. During the same year he was elected gov- 
ernor ; and there being some delay the next year in the admission of the state 
into the L'nion, he did not take his seat until the 24th of Ma\-, 1858, his term of 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 17 

office expiring on the 1st of January, i860. The change from a territorial to a 
state government necessarily devolved upon the first governor of the new oroan- 
ization and other officials a great amount of labor and the exercise of a wise and 
intelligent judgment, and it is not too much to say that these responsibilities 
were met and discharged with diligence and success. 

Since 1862 Governor Sibley has been a resident of Saint Paul. In Auoust of 
that year the Sioux outbreak commenced in Meeker count)-, and on the 19th of 
that month Governor Ramsey appointed him to the command of the state troops 
dispatched to subdue the hostile Indians. He immediately took the field, met 
and defeated the savage Sioux ; wrested from them two hundred and fifty white 
captives, mostly young women who had been brutally maltreated ; took two thou- 
sand prisoners, and had more than four hundred of them tried by military com- 
mission. About three hundred were condemned, and would have been hanged 
but for the intervention of the President of the United States. By his order 
thirty-eight were subsequently executed at Mankato. After the decisive victory 
over the Indians at Wood Lake, Mr. Sibley was made brigadier-general b}- Presi- 
dent Lincoln ; placed in command of the military district of Minnesota, and with 
such gallantry did he prosecute the war against the savages, and with such expe- 
dition and brilliant success did he bring it to a close, that in November, 1865, he 
was breveted major-general. He had command of the military district of Minne- 
sota until August, 1865. At that time he was detailed as a member of a commis- 
sion to negotiate treaties with the Sioux and other hostile tribes on the upper 
Missouri river, and this duty was successfully performed, the treaties negotiated 
being confirmed by the senate at its subsequent session. 

In the winter oi 1870-71 we find General Sibley once more in the legislature, 
performing valuable service to his constituents and to the state. A little later 
he served one year on the National Board of Indian Commissioners appointed by 
the President under an act of congress, the board having supervision of all In- 
dian affairs in the country. -So much time was required in attendance upon the 
meetings in Washington city and elsewhere, that General Sibley was compelled 
to resign as a member. 

The General has had honor alter honor heaped upon him at home, where he 
is thoroughly known, and where his worth as a citizen has been most full)- tested 
and is heartily appreciated. He has been president of the State Normal School 
board, and is now president of the board of regents ot the .State University, of 



1 8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

the Saint Paul Gas Company, and of the Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce. He 
has served as park commissioner; is now a director ot the F"irst National Bank, 
and of the Saint Paul and Sioux City railroad. 

General Sibley has been a lifr-lonor democrat, but is not a bitter partisan. 

On the 2d of May, 1843, Miss Sarah J. Steele, sister of Franklin Steele, be- 
came the wife of General Sibley, and died in May, 1869, leaving four children : 
AutjLista, the eldest child, is the wife of Lieutenant Douglass Pope, of Spring- 
lield, Illinois; Sarah is the wife of Elbert A. Young, of Saint Paul, and Frederic 
and Alfred are being educated in local schools. From a brief memoir of Gen- 
eral Sibley, written by Mr. J. 1*". Williams, secretary of the State Historical Soci- 
ety, wc learn that Mrs. Sibley was a "lady of rare virtues and accomi)lishments." 
She was a member of the Episcopal church, where the family attend worship. 

The city of Hastings and the count)- of Sibley were named for the General, 
and all over the state, for nearl\- forty years, his name has been a " household 
word," endeared by the jnirity of his life and the great services which he has ren- 
dered the commonwealth. 



HON. MICHAEL DORAN, 

LE SUEUR. 

MICHAEL DORAN, state senator from Le Sueur county, and one of the 
most successful business men in the count)', was a son of James Doran 
and Bridget McGuire, and was born in the county of Meath, Ireland, on the 
1st of November, 1829. He received very little education before coming to 
this country; left his native land in 1850, landed in New York city, and after 
remaining in the Empire State about one year, working on a farm, he removed 
to Norwalk, Ohio. He attended a country school about two years while in 
Huron county, farmed some, and subsequently ke])t a grocery store 

In 1856 Mr. Doran pushed westward once more, crossing the Mississippi river, 
settling in Le Sueur, and engaged in tilling lantl. Four years afterward he was 
elected count)- treasuriT, and by repeated re-elections held that office eight years, 
dealing, meanwhile, (]uite successfully, in real estate, and establishing a reputa- 
tion for shrewd business management, as well as for official faithfulnes.s. 

Since 1870 Mr. Doran has been in the banking business, at first in partner- 
ship with the late George D. Snow, and since the ist of August, 1878, with Edson 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. I9 

R. Smith. The Bank of Le Sueur, under their management, is a prosperous insti- 
tution. They also own the steam flouring mill and the elevator at Le Sueur. 

Mr. Doran has three farms under improvement, and about two thousand 
acres of wild, all in Le .Sueur county. Besides his buildings, etc., in the village 
of Le Sueur, he has property in and near Saint Paul, and is a marked example 
of energy well expended. 

Mr. Doran was a member of the state senate in 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, and 
again in 1877 and 1878, and in the last-named year was chairman of the special 
committee appointed to investigate the management of the Institution for the 
Insane, at Saint Peter. 

He is a life-long democrat, and a very influential man in his party. In 
1864 and 1876 he was a delegate to the national democratic convention which 
nominated General George B. McClellan and Samuel I. Tilden for the Presi- 
dency, and in the autumn of 1875 was nominated by his party as a candidate 
for state auditor, but declined to run. 

Senator Doran has had two wives. The first was Miss Ellen Brady, of 
Norwalk, Ohio; married in May, 1855. She died on the i ith of March, 1863, 
leaving five children, four of them yet living. His present wife .was Miss Cath- 
arine J. Grady, of Le Sueur; chosen on the loth of February, 1864. He has 
seven children by her. 



HON. CYRUS ALDRICH, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

CYRUS ALDRICH was born on the iSth of June, 1808, in Smithfield, 
Rhode Island. His father was Dexter Aldrich, who was engaged in shipping 
and merchandising. His mother's maiden name was Hannah White, a lineal de- 
scendant of Perigrrine White, who was the first male child born after the landine 
of the Pilgrim Fathers. 

Cyrus attended the common schools of his native place, and worked with his 
father until he arrived at the age of eighteen ; then, having an ambition to fol- 
low the sea, he shipped on a voyage to South America. On his return trip the 
vessel lay becalmed for weeks off the Carolinas, and he returned home thor- 
oughly cured of all taste for sailor's life, but with health impaired, and the effects 



20 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

of this voyage was to place him under a doctor's care for five or six years, during 
which time he visited Niagara, the mineral springs, and many other places re- 
puted to be efficacious in restoring health. 

In 1835 Mr. Aldrich came to Alton, Illinois, where he took a contract on the 
Illinois and Michigan canal. In 1841 this terminated disastrously for him, and in 
the following spring he removed to Galena, Illinois, where he entered the firm 
of Galbraith, Porter and Co., and engaged in staging and mail-carrying. 

In 1845 h^ ^^'^s elected to the Illinois legislature, and re-elected the following 
year, serving with prominence ami distinction. On his return home, the people, 
meeting him at the depot, expressed a general desire to take him by the hand 
and say " well done." In 1847 he was elected register of deeds of [o Daviess 
county, and filled the office for two years. Early in 1849 President Taylor ap- 
pointed Mr. Aldrich receiver of the United States land office at Dixon, Illinois, 
in which position he served faithfully for four years. In 1852 he was the whig 
candidate for congress from that district, with " Long John " Wentworth, of Chi- 
cago, for an opponent. Mr. Aldrich ran over fifteen hundred votes ahead of his 
ticket, yet was defeated, through a liberal democratic use of money, by a small 
majority. In 1854 he was elected chairman of the board of supervisors of Dixon, 
and a member of the board of commissioners for the county of Lee. During 
this )-ear he visited Minnesota, and being so well jjleased with the then small \'il- 
lage of Minneapolis, h(; moved thither in the spring of 1835. Here he engaged 
in real estate, soon becoming quite popular, especially in the republican party; 
and in 1857 he was elected a member of the state constitutional convention, in 
which body he took a prominent and leading position. 

In 1856 Mr. Aldrich was a delegate to the national republican convention at 
Philadelphia that nominated General |ohn C. Fremont for the Presidency, and 
was one of the committee appointed to wait on General Fremont and intorm him 
of his nomination. During this same year he was nominated tor territorial dele- 
gate to congress, but deleated by what afterward prox'cul a trauilulent \ote. 

In 1858 Mr. Aldrich visited Washington as a witness in the Fort Snelling 
case, that being one of the military posts wliich the then secretary of war, Jeffer- 
son Davis, had unlawful!) disposed of During the same year he was nominated 
for congress by the republicans, and elected by a large majority. In the national 
house of representatives he was an untiring worker and a faithful representative 
of his constituents. Whenever he spoke it was always to the point, and in a 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 21 

Style, though plain, yet so thoroughly in earnest, that his opinions created a 
deeper and more lasting impression than a more brilliant orator would. He was 
one of that determined committee that waited on President Buchanan and re- 
quested him to sign an order for the troops to protect the government ; and 
when the poor weak man said that if he signed it he was afraid the southern 
men would shoot him, it was Mr. Aldrich who exclaimed, " If you don't sign that 
order I'll shoot yott noiv "/ The order was signed. 

In i860 Mr. Aldrich was renominated without opposition, and elected by a 
larger vote than Abraham Lincoln received for President on the same ticket. 
This was a trying term, but he took the same prominent position he held before. 
He was very decided and patriotic in all his actions, and unusually successful in 
the introduction of his bills, all of which were passed. 

During his stay in Washington the ist Minnesota regiment was quartered 
near the capital for several months, and his loving attentions to their wants is 
thus mentioned by a previous writer: 

He felt a peculiar interest in the regiment and its welfare, and he was with them whenever his 
duties at Washington permitted. The poor, sick or wounded soldier found in him a sympathetic, 
active friend, always ready with cheering word or liberal purse to minister to his wants. He would 
patiently frank "soldiers' letters" by the hundred, or write letters for the invalids in the hospitals, 
and in a hundred ways bestowed on them those gentle and tender benefactions that only a generous 
heart could have conceived and exectited, but which were of priceless value to the poor, despondent, 
suffering soldier. He seemed never to tire in his devotion to the "boys " of the ist regiment, and it 
is undeniable- that this devotion to them seriously injured his health and perhaps shortened his life; 
it is equally true that his unceasing generosity impaired his fortune and produced embarrassment 
that compelled him to sacrifice valuable property at home. 

The gratitude of the soldiers was manifested in their unanimously electing 
him an honorary member of the regiment. This, perhaps, seems a small return 
for all he did, but Mr. Aldrich accepted it at its true value — a tribute of their 
heartfelt appreciation of his unwavering kindness to them. 

In 1862 he declined the nomination for a third term, and in the following 
year he reluctantly allowed himself to be a candidate for the United States sen- 
ate, but was unsuccessful. Soon afterward. President Lincoln, who was a warm 
personal friend of his, appointed him a member of the " indemnit\' committee," 
to examine claims of settlers who had suffered during the Indian war of 1862, 
and in this arduous task he performed his duties to the eminent satisfaction of 
all the parties interested. Mr. Aldrich was one of the projectors of the Northern 
Pacific railroad, and devoted much time and labor to get it started. 



2 2 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In 1865-6 he was a member of the state legislature, serving with his usual 
zeal and energy. In 1865 he was also elected chairman of the board of super- 
visors of the towrf. In 1S67 he was appointed postmaster of Minneapolis. As 
he had made no effort to obtain this office, it was quite unexpected. He served 
in this capacitN', with his usual faithful devotion to the public, for a term of four 
years. 

After leaving the |)nst-office, his health being feeble, he retired from active 
business, and sought in llie quiet of his home that rest his heart so longed for, 
after a long and bus\- life spent mostly in the public service. Always an inde- 
fatieable worker, his iron constitution had been overtaxed, and the chances of 
recuperation alloweil him came too late. In spite of the physician's skill, the 
loving attentions and hopes of relatives and innumerable friends, his health grad- 
ually failed until the final dissolution, on the 5th of October, 1871. The follow- 
ing Sunday, October S, the funeral services were held in the Universalist church, 
of which he had previously become a member, and the remains were followed to 
Lakewood Cemetery by the largest concourse of people ever gathered together 
on a similar occasion in the state. 

I'^rom the address of the Rev. Dr. Tuttle, who conducted the services, is taken 
the tollinving touching tribute, paid to one universally loved and respected: 

Colonel Aldrich was, during most of his years, a puljlic man, and in contact witli a large number 
of our most distinguished men, he became thoroughly conversant witii nearly all the measures and 
interests which agitated courts, legislatures and the United States congress. His opportunities for 
doing good, then, for serving the institutions for which he always cherished a patriotic pride, were 
exceedingly great, and he used these opportunities with conspicuous fidelity. . . . The deeds which 
longer than all others, perhaps, will keep his memory fresh in the hearts of his surviving fellow-citi- 
zens, and which will embalm his name in loving gratitude among the people of this state, are those 
which he performed in aid of our soldiers during the late rebellion. .Many, very many, are the 
touching incidents which might be related of his true, earnest, patriotic devotion during those peril- 
ous times; of the way he emptied liis pockets to aid the cause. . . . He was unusually tender- 
hearted, sympathetic and generous. He was quick to perceive the wants of his fellow-men, and ever 
ready and willing to render all the aid in his power. . . . Perhaps there was no one in our city, of 
his means and of his cares, who listened more attentively to tales of poverty and suffering, and made 
greater sacrifices to afford the relief that was asked. It was a pleasure for him to do his neighbors a 
kindness; indeed, his every-day life was filled with kindness, with loving words, and with all those 
genial manners and easy courtesies which mark a noble and generous mind. 

At Galena, Illinois, on the 26th of May, 1S45, Mr. Aldrich was married to 
Miss Clara A., daughter of Cyrus Meaton, of La Porte, Indiana. Mrs. Aldrich 
resides with the other surviving members of the family, a son and daughter, in 



II 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 23 

Minneapolis. The eldest, Villa, was married in this city on the 26th of May, 
1869, to D. H. Wright. Henry is studying medicine and dentistry, and attends 
lectures in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 



HON. WILLIS A. GORMAN, 

SAINT PAUL. 

WILLIS ARNOLD GORM.A.N second territorial governor of Minne- 
sota, was the only son of David L. and Elizabeth Gorman, and was born 
near Flemingsburg, Fleming county, Kentucky, on the 12th of January, 18 16. 
He received a good literary education; moved to Bloomington, Indiana, in Au- 
gust, 1835, and there graduated from the law department of the .State University 
the following year. Without mone)', and with only the few friends made in one 
year's residence in Bloomington, he began to practice, and in three years, in spite 
of embarrassing obstacles, he had gradually risen at the bar and become so popu- 
lar as to be nominated and elected to the state legislature. He served the county 
so faithfully as to be repeatedly re-elected, serving five or six terms. 

On the breaking out of the Mexican war, in 1846, Mr. Gorman enlisted as a 
private in the 3d Indiana regiment, and on the election of officers became major. 
He, with tour hundred riflemen, had the honor of bringing on the famous battle 
of Buena Vista, he making the assault upon the enemy's flank, by order of Gen- 
eral Taylor. During this battle the Major's horse was shot, and fell with its 
rider in a deep ravine ; but although receiving an injury by the fall, so severe that 
he never fully recovered from it, he retained the command of his battalion until 
the enemy was beaten and dispersed. At the end of one year, when this regi- 
ment's term of enlistment had expired, Major Gorman returned to Indiana; 
aided in raising the 4th regiment of Volunteers ; was elected its colonel, and 
served till the close of the war, his regiment being in the battles of Huamantia, 
Atlixco, Puebla, and two or three others. During the entire campaign in Mexico 
Colonel Gorman showed himself a brave, gallant and dashing officer. 

On his return to Indiana, Colonel Gorman resumed the legal practice, and in 
the autumn of 1848 was elected a representative to congress; two years later was 
re-elected, and served till the 4th of March, 1853. The next May, under appoint- 
ment of President Pierce, he became governor of Minnesota Territory, and set- 



24 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

tU.'tl at Saint Paul, the cajjital, which was his residence until his death, May 20, 
1876. 

It was while he was in the sjubernatorial chair that the exciting;' land-grant 
question came up for discussion and was settled. While favoring the granting of 
lands to railroad companies, he recommended that the state should reserve at 
least three per cent of the gross earnings of the railroads, instead of general tax- 
ation, and he vetoed the first railroad bill which passed the legislature, because, 
as he thought, it did not full\- protect the interests of the people. The present 
income of three per cent from all the land-grants in the state is owing, in no 
inconsiderable measure, to the wisdom and firmness of Governor Gorman. Dur- 
ing this period, by order of the general government, he made several treaties 
with the Indians, accomplishing his work of this character in a peaceful and sat- 
isfactory manner to all parties. In these several treaties it is averred that he 
disbursed more than a million dollars, without the loss of a dollar to either party. 

In 1857, his term of office as governor having expired, he was elected a mem- 
ber of the constitutional convention, and was subsequently a democratic candi- 
date for United States senator, but was defeated by a division of his party. 

In the spring of 1861, when the stars and stripes were lowered at Fort .Sum- 
ter, Governor (jorman immediatel}- offered his services to his country, and on 
the 29th of April was ap|)()int(-d colonel of the 1st regiment Minnesota Volun- 
teers. Subsccpiently, on tlie recommendation of General .Scott, for intrepidity 
and coolness shown at the battle of Bull Run, he was appointed a brigadier-gen- 
eral of volunteers. He served between three and four years, being mustered out 
late in the year 1864. 

From that period to his tlemise General Gorman was engaged in the business 
ol his proiession, in i)arlnershi|} with Hon. C. K. 1 )a\is, late governor of the 
state. He i)aid especial attention to the criiuinal branch of his profession. 

The man)- parts which, in his time, General Gorman. ]jlayed, necessarih- broke 
that continuity of devotion indispensable to the making of a great lawyer, but his 
native powers did murli lo clisenil)arrass him in this respect, for his view ot jjrin- 
ciples was very clear. His forensic efforts were always adequate, and in many 
cases exhibited remarkable power of analysis and deduction. In summing up 
questions of fact to juries his ability was most forcibly tlisplayed, and it is with 
them that liis reputation as a lawyer is most intimately connected and will be 
longest remembered. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 25 

In 1869 he was elected city attorney and corporation counsel for the city; was 
re-elected two years later, and held that office, with the additional office of attor- 
ney for the board of public works, until his death. 

General Gorman had two wives. The first was Miss Martha Stone, of Blooni- 
ington, Indiana; married in 1836. She had five children, and died on the ist of 
March, 1864. Two of her children are also dead: James W. Gorman, who was 
assistant adjutant-general on his father's staff during the civil war, and who died 
of disease contracted in that war, on the 19th of February, 1863 ; and Louisa G., 
first wife of Harvey Officer, attorney, of Saint Paul, she dying of consumption, 
on the 4th of March, 1870. The three living children are Richard L. Gorman, 
secretary of the Saint Paul board of public works ; Ellis Stone, an attorney-at-law 
in Saint Paul; and Martha B., wife of B. F. Wood, of Evansville, Indiana. The 
second wife of General Gorman, she still surviving him, was Miss Emily New- 
ington, of Saint Paul; married on the 27th of April, 1865. 



HON. DANIEL A. MORRISON, 

ROCHESTER. 

DANIEL ALEXANDER MORRISON, state senator from Olmsted coun- 
ty, is a son of Ananias and Mary Gaston Morrison, and was born in Frank- 
lin. Venango county, Pennsylvania, on the 8th of November, 1842. Paternally, 
he is of Scotch descent ; maternally, Irish. John Gaston, his grandfather, was 
wounded in the second war with England, the wound eventually causing" his 
death. Both of his parents were born in Pennsylvania. In 1846 they moved to 
Elmira, New York, and in 1852 to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where the son re- 
ceived a common-school education, and learned the printer's trade in "The Com- 
monwealth " office. In 1859 and i860 he published the "Journal " at Markesan, 
Green Lake county, Wisconsin, — the first enterprise of the kind in that town. 
He started it before he was eighteen years old. 

In 1862 Mr. Morrison enlisted in the 32d Wisconsin Infantry, and served until 
the close of the war. 

In April, 1866, he settled in Rochester, where he has been engaged in the 
mercantile trade, and has shown himself a straightforward, energetic and success- 
ful man. His business talent, and the high esteem in which he is held, are seen 



26 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in the positions which he has recently occupied. He has been at the head of the 
miinicipaHty of Rochester three terms, making an efficient and popuhxr executive, 
and is now in the state senate, serving in the session of 1878 on the committees 
on hospital for insane, state library, engrossing, and internal improvements, being 
chairman of the last named committee. He was re-elected state senator in the 
autumn of 1878. 

The politics of Senator Morrison are strongly republican, and he is one of 
the leading men of the party in Olmsted count)-. He is a Master Mason, and in 
1877-78 was grand master of the Odd-Fellows of the state. 

In Iul\-, 1865, Miss Sarah M. Beeton, of Rochester, became the wife of .Sen- 
ator Morrison, and of four children, resultin"' from this union, three are livine. 

The subject of this sketch is below the average height, being five feet six 
and a half inches tall, and weighing one hundred and thirty-five pounds. He has 
deep blue eyes, an open countenance, a pleasant address, and all the elements of 
the frank and prompt business man. As such he is a success. 



HON. ALEXANDER RAMSEY. 

SAINT PAUL. 

ALEXANDER RAMSEY, first territorial governor of Minnesota, is a native 
^ of Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, and was born near Harrisburg, on the 
8th of .September, 18 15. He is of Scotch-Irish descent on his father's side, and 
German on his mother's. His parents were Thomas and Elizabeth (Kelker) 
Ramsey. His grandfather, Alexander Ramsey, was born in eastt;rn Pennsylva- 
nia; his father, near the town of York, in York count)', on the 15th of June, 1784, 
and was an officer in the war of 181 2- 15, dying when the son was ten years old. 
Left an orphan, Alexander was assisted in his education by a grand-uncle, Fred- 
eric Kelker, in whose store in Harrisburg young Ramsey assisted as a salesman. 
Subsequently, for a short time, when about twelve years of age, he found em- 
plo)-ment in the office of the register of deeds of Daui)hin count)', niainh' tor the 
improvement of his penmanship. At eighteen years of age he attended school 
at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania; comnienced reading law in 1857, 
with Hon. Hamilton Alricks, of Harrisburg; went thence to the law school at 
Carlisle, and was admitted to practice in 1839. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 29 

The political life of Mr. Ramsey commenced in 1840, the year of the Harrison 
campaign, when he was quite active in the whig cause, and was made secretary 
of the Electoral College, which cast the vote of the state for the hero of Tippeca- 
noe. The next year Mr. Ramsey was made chief clerk ot the house of represen- 
tatives of Pennsylvania. 

He was in the lower house of congress from 1843 to 1847, the twenty-eighth 
and twenty-ninth congress, and during those four years he exhibited those quali- 
ties of mind which gave him much prominence and a high reputation throughout 
the state. So much confidence had his political confreres in him, that in 1848 he 
was made chairman of the whig state central committee. The campaign of that 
year resulted in the election of General Zachary Taylor to the Presidency ; and 
immediately after his inauguration he appointed Mr Ramsey governor of the 
Territory of Minnesota, the commission dating April 2, 1849. He moved to 
Saint Paul, the capital of the territory, the next month. 

When Governor Ramsey took his seat as the e.xecutive of the territory, then 
embracing all of the present territory of Dakota to the Missouri river, it con- 
tained less than five thousand white people ; he has lived to see it expand into a 
sovereign state of seven hundred and fifty thousand in a little less than thirty 
years. 

The territorial government was organized on the ist of June, 1849, '^"^1 
eleven days later the Governor issued his proclamation establishing three judi- 
cial districts, and providing for the election of members to the first legislature. 
This body met on the 3d of the next September, using the dining-hall of the 
Central Hotel, Saint Paul. In his message the Governor asked congress to 
e.xtend the pre-emption laws to unsurveyed lands, and to limit the sale of public 
lands to actual settlers, to which the national legislators gave a prompt and 
favorable response. Thus Minnesota has been measurably free from the curse 
of non-resident ownership of her lands. During his administration the Governor 
made several important treaties with the Indians, — Sioux half-breeds, Dakotas 
and Chippewas, — by which the Indian title to large tracts of land was commuted, 
and these lands were open to white settlers. 

In his last message to the territorial legislature, the Governor predicted great 
progress for Minnesota, in the way of settlement, railroads, etc., and time has 
shown the correctness of his predictions. He was succeeded in the gubernatorial 
chair in May, 1853, by Willis A. Gorman, elsewhere sketched in this volume. 



30 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Governor Ramsey was mayor oi Saint Paul in 1855 I '^^'^'^ ^^^^ republican can- 
didate for governor in 1857, and by a fair count of the vote was believed b}' his 
friends to have been elected, and two )-ears later was chosen by a majority of 
nearly fcnir thousand votes, in a total vote of less than fort)' thousand. He was 
re-elected in 1861. Durino his administration he promptly responded to the call 
of the United States Government, made? in Aijril. 1861, for one thousand men to 
aid in putting down the rebellion, and to subsequent calls, amounting to near 
twenty-hve thousand in all ; and he speedily quelled the outbreak of the Sioux 
Indians in 1862, showing great executive ability in the discharge of all his duties. 
By his prudent forethought and sagacity he rendered invaluable service to the 
state in suggesting the best methods for disposing of the school lands, thus saving 
for educational purposes hundreds of thousands of dollars, which have been 
largely squandered in one or two other states. No man ever looked after the 
interests of Minnesota with greater vigilance. 

In January, 1863, before the expiration of his second term, Governor Ramsey 
was elected United States senator, and re-elected in 1869, serving twelve years. 

He heartily supported all measures for the prosecution of the war against the 
southern insurgents ; warmly advocated, as chairman of the committee on post- 
offices and post-roads, the abolition of the franking privilege, an act effecting 
that end becoming a law on the ist of July, 1873; as a member uf the com- 
mittee on railroads, assisted in securing aid for the building of the Northern 
Pacific railroad, which now stretches across the northern ]jart of Minnesota; 
favored the project for three trunk lines between the Mississippi antl the Pacitic 
states, and the general i)lan of aiding lines of such thoroughfares by donating 
alternate sections ol public lands tor thi-ir use. He was especially active in 
securing the survey and improvement of the ui)per Mississippi river ami branches 
by the general government. He labored earnestly and continually for the inter- 
ests of the great northwest, and his services to this section, and to the country as 
a whole, will be gratefully remembered long after he has passed away. 

On the loth of September, 1845, Miss Anna Earl Jenks, a daughter of the 
late Hon. Michael H. Jenks, a judge lor man)' years of Bucks count)', Pennsylva- 
nia, and at the time a member of congress, became the wife of Senator Ramsey, 
ami the)' have hatl three children, two sons and one daughter; the sons, Alexan- 
der and William Henry, dying in infancy. Marion is the wife of Charles Eliot 
Furness, of Philadelphia. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 31 

Senator Ramsey resides in the western part ot the city, and has one of the 
most elegant mansions in Saint Paul. Jts surroundings are tasteful and very 
inviting; he is living at his ease, and apparently free from political aspirations; 
is the very impersonation of health and good cheer, and the mellow autumn of 
his lite seems to be flooded with Q-olden sunshine. 



HON. NATHAN M. D. McMULLEN, 

SHAKOPEE. 

NATHAN M. D. McMULLEN, eighteen years a justice of the peace in 
Shakopee, and one of the most respected men in the city, is a Pennsylva- 
nian by birth, born in Franklin county, on the iiSth of September, 1806. His 
father, James McMuUen, a carpenter 'and cabinet-maker by trade, traces his 
ancestry back to Wales, though both father and grandfather of our subject were 
born in the State of Delaware. The maiden name of Nathan's mother was Mar- 
garet Skilton, also a native of Delaware. 

After receiving an ordinary common-school education he learned the trade of 
a woolen manufacturer ; worked at it six or seven years, then became a merchant 
at Janesville, Somerset county, Pennsylvania; and in 1844 removed to Mansfield, 
Ohio, where he followed the same business for eight years. While in Richland 
county he was very active in politics, having for one of his associates and co- 
workers Samuel J. Kirkwood, then a democrat, since governor of Iowa, and now 
United States senator from that state. At one time Mr. McMullen was at the 
head of the municipality of Mansfield. 

In 1852 he pushed a little way westward to Van Wert, in the same state, 
where he was a hotel-keeper and merchant; taking another western stride in 1856, 
and settling in Shakopee. Here he opened a hardware store; at the end of two 
years was succeeded by his son, John McMullen, who still manages it ; became a 
justice of the peace shortly afterward, and still holds that office. He is one of the 
most popular and highly esteemed citizens ot Shakopee, respected no less for his 
excellent business qualifications and moral qualities than for his age. Though 
past seventy, he has an active, clear mind, and makes an accurate and judicious 
official. 



32 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. McMullcn was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in 
the session held in the winter of 1862-63, and the extra session of the latter year. 
He has always been a democrat. 

Mr. McMullen has been a member of the Presbyterian church more than 
forty years ; is a man of humane feelings and liberal impulses, and a consistent 
christian. 

He has been married since October, 1833, his wife being Miss Isabella Deni- 
son, of Jennersville, Pennsylvania. They have had twelve children, seven of them 
living, and all married but one son, Columbus, who lives in Shakopee. Gaylord 
lives in Polo, Iowa; Edwin at Heron Lake, Minnesota; John, as we have stated, 
is a hardware merchant ; Mary is the wife of Stephen Reed, of Cincinnati, Ohio ; 
Lucy, of Joseph Newton, of .Shakopee, and Maria, of George H. Kunsman, of 
Shakopee. 



HON. ABNER C. SMITH, 

IJTCIIFIEI.n. 

ABNER COMSTOCK SMITH, one of the leading men in Meeker county, 
>- Minnesota, was a son of John Smith, a native of Rockingham, Vermont, 
and a pioneer in Brookfield, Orange county, Vermont, dying in 1S63, in his 
eighty-third year, and of Eunice Davenport, his wife, of Petersham, Massachu- 
setts. The Davenports are a conspicuous lamily in some parts of the country, 
and its genealogy is about to be published by Dr. H. V . Davenport, of Boston, 
Massachusetts. 

Abner, who was born on the 14th of February, 1S14, received an academic 
education at Randolph, in his native state ; commenced reading law at twenty 
years of age in the office of Marsh and Swan, of Woodstock, V^ermont ; finished 
readino- in Washincrton citv with Hon. W. L. Brent, once a member of cono^ress 
from Louisiana; and on the 14th of b^ebruary, 1838, was admitted to the bar at a 
term of the supreme court of the United States, on examination by Chief Justice 
Taney, and on motion of Hon. Thomas H. Benton, United States senator from 
Missouri. Before being admitted he was a clerk under Hon. Levi Woodbury, 
secretary of the treasury for President \'an Buren, holding that position three 
years, resigning in May, 1839, and settling in Mount Clemens, Michigan. There 
he resided for fifteen \ears, engaged, the greater part of the time, in journalism 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 33 

and the practice of his profession. He pubHshed the Macomb county " Gazette," 
a weekly paper, four years, and, during most of this time, a monthly called " The 
Ancient Landmark," a masonic periodical. He was on the bench, serving as a 
district judge three years, his term expiring about 1854, and a member of the 
Michigan state senate in 1845 ^"d 1846. 

In 1855 Judge Smith removed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, published the daily 
"Free Press" six months, and then took a thirty-thousand-dollar contract for 
improving the levee of that city, being engaged in this business a few months, 
and having, at times, more than a hundred and fifty men working for him. He 
introduced into Minnesota the first rolling-stock of any kind ever used in the 
state, consisting of an invoice of gravel cars, purchased in Dubuque, Iowa. 

In the spring of 1857 Judge Smith was appointed register of the United 
States land office at Minneapolis, and went with it to Forest City, Meeker county, 
the next year; leaving that office in the autumn of 1858, and engaging in the 
practice of law and general collecting business. 

The celebrated Indian outbreak and massacre of 1862 commenced on the 
17th of August in the town of Acton, Meeker county, fourteen miles from Forest 
City, and three days afterward Judge Smith sent the following letter to the 
governor of the state : 

.,.„,,, „ r^ 1 Forest City, Aiiscust 20, 6 a.m., 1S62. 

His Excellency Alexander Ramsey, Oovernor, etc. ! o 1 

Sir, — In advance of the news from the Minnesota river, the Indians have opened on us in 

Meeker. It is war ! A few proposed to make a stand here. Send us, forthwitli, some good guns, 

and ammunition to match. Yours truly, A. C. Smith. 

This missive, taken to Saint Paul by Jesse V. Branham, then sixty years of 
age, brought forty-four stand of Springfield muskets, and " ammunition to match," 
to Forest City before noon of the 23d. There were thirteen men and three 
women on the site of the village to use these forty-four guns. On the 24th a 
military organization was effected, and the next day more than thirty other men 
came in and joined the company. Through all the bloody massacre Judge Smith 
never retreated an inch from Meeker county. In 1876, the centennial year, he 
wrote, by request ot President Grant and the recommendation of the two houses 
of congress, the history of the county ; and tVom it we learn that a report came 
one day that the Indians were coming into Forest City, when about a dozen 
men and boys, — all there were in town, — hastily armed themselves as best they 
could, and, led by the Judge, marched out to meet the enemy. He himself, 



34 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



though captain, had no sword, but armed himself with "a double-barrel bogus 
stub-and-twist shot-gun, and three butcher knives under the waistbands of his 
pants." The enemy did not meet him ; he had no victory to win, and we believe 
never boasts of his military exploits. 

In 1S69, when the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad came through Meeker 
county, and the village of Litchfield, the county seat, began to grow, he opened 
a law and land office here, but did not move his family until 1874. He is a 
sound lawyer, a careful business man, strictly honest, and has the unlimited 
confidence of the community. 

The Judtre was a democrat in politics until the civil war commenced, and 
has since been quite independent, heartily supporting the government in all 
war measures, and voting the republican ticket most ol the; time for the last 
fifteen years, though taking very little interest in politics. 

He was the father of Masonry in Michigan, and grand secretary and grand 
lecturer for the order from 1842 until he left the state. At one time he held 
the office of junior grand warden of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota. He or- 
ganized and was worshipful master of the first masonic lodge " west of the Big 
Woods." 

The wife of Judge Smith was Miss Elizabeth D. Buck, eldest daughter of 
Hon. Daniel Azro Ashley Buck, at one time a member of congress from Ver- 
mont, and at the time f)f their marriage, May i, 1839, chief clerk in tht; Indian 
Bureau, Washington, District of Columbia. She is the last survivor of this 
branch of the Buck family, once so conspicuous in the Green Mountain State; 
her father, mother, and only brother and sister, lying in the congressional bury- 
ing ground. Mrs. Smith is the mother of four children, three of them yet living. 
Carrie L. is the wife of Edwin S. Eitch, of Hastings, Minnesota; Ella Belmont 
is the wife of Laban B. Di.\on, of Chicago, and Henry Ledyard is an architect, 
whose residence is also in Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are attendants at the 
Presbyterian church. 

The [udge has one of the best residences in Litchfielil; he is not wealthy, 
but lives in easy independence, anil in a quiet way is doing all he can to advance 
the interests of his prairie home. He was one of the foremost men in building 
the large masonic hall in Litchfield, and has as much public spirit, probably, 
as any man in the county. He is of a kindly, charitable disposition, and has 
tested the blessedness of giving. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 35 

He has a law and miscellaneous library of about three thousand volumes ; 
contains many valuable works, — amony them the Massachusetts and Vermont 
historical collections, and something- like three hundred volumes of executive 
documents of the United States, embracing the history of the government for 
nearly thirty years. His history of Meeker county is an interesting little volume 
of one hundred and sixty pages, rather spicy withal, with an admirable litho- 
graphic map of the county, drawn by his son, Henry L. Smith. 



HON. WILLIAM MITCHELL, 

WINONA. 

WILLIAM MITCHELL, judge of the third judicial district, and son of 
John and Mary Henderson Mitchell, is of pure Scotch blood, both parents 
being born in the old countr)', and connected with a long line of agriculturists. 
William was born on the 19th of November, 1832, a few miles from Drummond- 
ville, in the county of Welland, province of Ontario ; prepared for college at 
private schools in his native count)' ; entered Jefferson College, Canonsburg, 
Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1S48, and graduated in 1853 After teach- 
ing two years in an academy at Morgantown, West Virginia, he read law with 
Edgar C. Wilson, of the same place, and was there admitted to the bar in the 
spring of 1857, settling in Winona during the same spring. Here he was in 
constant and successful practice until he went on the bench in January, 1874. 
He had held other offices long prior to that date — was a member of the legisla- 
ture in the session which was held in the winter of 1859-60, and subsequently 
was count)- attorney for one term. His judicial tern-i runs for seven years, ex- 
piring with the year 1881. He was elected without opposition, and the selec- 
tion was no doubt as good as could be made. The ludee has thorouu-h literar\' 
as well as legal culture, an abundance of broad common sense, and all the 
elements which constitute a first-class district judge. In nioral character he 
stands in the front rank. 

He is interested directl)- or indirectly with local enterprises calculated to 
build up Winona, among them the Winona and .Southwestern Railway, of which 
company he is president. He is also president of the Winona .Savings Bank. 

Judge Mitchell was originally a republican ; became dissatisfied with some 



36 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

of the reconstruction measures of the party during the administration of Presi- 
dent Johnson, and since that time has been independent, acting largely, though 
not wholly, with the democratic party. 

His religious leanings are towartl the Presbyterian church, in which he was 
reared, but of which he is not a member. 

Judge Mitchell has been twice married: the first time to Mrs. E. Jane Smith, 
of Morgantown, West Virginia, in September, 1857. — she dying ten \ears later, 
leaving four children ; the second time to Mrs. Frances M. Smith, daughter of 
Jacob D. Merritt, of Dubuque, Iowa, in July, 1872,— two children being the fruit 
of this union. 



HON. CHARLES D. GILFILLAN, 

SAINT PAUL. 

CHARLES DUNCAN GILFILLAN, member of the state senate, is a 
native of Oneida county, New York; a son of James and Janet (Gilmer) 
Gilfillan, and was born in New Hartford, on the 4th of July, 1831. His father, 
who by occupation was a weaver, came to this country from Scotland in 1830, 
and settled in Oneida county, where Charles lived until eleven years old, when 
the family moved to Chenango county. There the son remained for hve years, 
attending school in the winters, and working on a farm and in a saw-mill during 
the other seasons. Subsequently he spent three years in Homer Academy and 
Hamilton College; then went to Missouri, and remained there one year, and in 
1 85 1 located at Stillwater, Minnesota. There he read law with Michael E. 
Ames, and was admitted to the bar in 1853, remo\ing to Saint Paul in Novem- 
ber, 1854. 

Here Mr. Gilfillan was in the practice of his profession about a dozen years, 
and since the close of that period has been engaged in various public enterprises. 
He is now president of the Saint Paul water-works. 

Mr. Gilfillan was the first recorder of .Stillwater; was a member ot the house 
of representatives of the legislature in 1864, 1865 and 187(3, and is now, as 
already mentioned, in the senate. At the session hekl in 1878 he was chairman 
of the railroad committee, and on the committees on the judiciar\' and education. 

Senator Gilfillan is an able, e.xperienced and efficient legislator, looking well 
to the interests of his constituents and of the state. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGBAPHICAL DICTIONARY. t,"] 

Since he has been a voter, he has acted uniformly with the republican party. 

He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity. 

Senator Gilfillan was first married, in [859, to Miss Emma C. Waage, of 
Montgomery county, New York, she dying in 1S63, leaving no issue. His 
present wife was Miss Fanny S. Waage, sister ot his first wife ; married in 1865. 
They have four children. 



HON. WILLIAM H. YALE, 

MI NONA. 

WILLIAM HALL YALE, son of Wooster and Lucy Hall Yale, was born 
in New Haven, Connecticut, on the 12th of November, i8;i, he beine 
the sixth child in a famil)- often children. His ancestor, Thomas Yale, came to 
America in 1637, and settled in New Haven. He was one of the leading men 
in the colony, a signer of the "Plantation Covenant," ol New Haven, filling vari- 
ous offices of trust and honor. Captain Yale died on the 27th of March, 1683. 
It was his son, Elihu Yale, for whom Yale College was named. Born in New- 
Haven, he was educated in England; at the age of thirty years went to India in 
the service of the East India Company, remaining there twenty years ; amassed 
a fortune; married a native ot that countr)'; returned to London, and became 
governor of the East India Company. A namesake and descendant of his, Elihu 
Yale, compiler of the "Yale Genealogy" (New Haven, Connecticut, 1850), states 
that Governor Yale introduced auctions into England about 1700, he causing 
some "'oods which he had broug-ht from the Indies to be thus sold. His munih- 
cent gifts to the college at New Haven, caused its name to be changed to "Yale." 
The following epitaph is recorded on his tombstone at Wrexham, in Wales: 

" Born in America, in England bred, 
In Africa travell'd, and in Asia wed. 
Where long he lived and thrived, at London dead, 
Much good, some ill he did ; so hope that all's even, 
And that his Soul, through Mercy's gone to Heaven. 

You that survive and read, take care 

For this most certain exit to prepare; 

For only the actions of the just 

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust." 

Captain Thomas Yale, son of Captain Thomas Yale, senior, and brother of 
Governor Yale, whose epitaph we have just recorded, was one of the small com- 



38 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIOXARY. 

nany of adxcnturcrs who, under the direction of llie New Haven Committee, 
removed to W'allinoford in that state, in 1670. He was one of the most public- 
spirited and i;nlerprising men in that littk' band, — ^justice of the peace, " captain 
of tiu; train banil," and moderator of the town meetings. He died at Walhng- 
ford in i 736. 

On the farm orioinally opened b\- Ca])tain Thomas Yale, junit)r, in 1670, 
Wooster Yale, the father of our subject, frnalh' settled, and there died on the 27th 
of March, 1842, aged fort)-tive years. He was at one time an extensive shoe 
manufacturer in his native town of Wallingfonl ; later in life had an exchange 
office in New Haven, of wliich county he was deputy sheriff for several years, re- 
turning to Wallingford a little while before his demist!. William was then about 
nine vears ohl, aiul from that age until fourteen, he was put out on a tarm, with 
such opportunities for education as the winter term of a district school afforded. 
Subsequently he spent three years at the Connecticut Literary Institute, Suffield, 
taking a full course, including the classics. 

At eighteen Mr. Yale commenced teaching at Norwalk, in liis native state, 
foUowino- that profession there for two or three years, reading law also at the 
same time. After ending his teaching, and giving his whole time to legal studies 
for a short period, he became cashier and bookkeeper of the Sharp's Ril]e Manu- 
facturinL,^ Compan)', at Hartford, holding that position between two and three 
years, and leaving it for the west. 

Mr. Yale located at Winona in the spring of 1857, resumed his legal studies, 
and was admitted to the bar early in the autumn of that \ear. lie practiced 
alone until 1867; was then the partner of Judge William Mitchell till January, 
1874; was alone again in the practice for three or four \ears, and is now ot the 
firm of Yale and Webber, his partner being one of his former law students, Mr. 
M. B. Webber. 

Mr. Yale; is of a studious cast of mind ; ])repares his cases with much care, and 
is regarded as a good pleader and an excellent business man. He is eminently 
reliable and trustworthy, and has an honorable standing in the legal fraternity. 

Mr. Yale has been in some civil or political office more than two thirds ot the 
time since settling in Minnesota. He was elected police justice in 1858, holding 
that office two years ; before the expiration of the term was elected judge of pro- 
bate ; was subsequently prosecuting attorney for two terms; was a state senator 
in 1867 and 1868; lieutenant-governor from 1870 to 1874, and senator again in 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 39 

1876 and 1877. Each time that Mr. Yale was elected lieutenant-governor he 
had the largest majority of any man on the republican state ticket, and the last 
time he was chosen senator he had a handsome majority in a strongly democratic 
district. As a politician, he has always affiliated with the republicans, and in 1876 
was appointed a delegate to the republican national convention at Cincinnati, 
but owing to sickness in the family was unable to attend. During the four years 
that he presided over the state senate, he won golden opinions for the prompt- 
ness and impartiality with Avhich he discharged his official functions. As a parlia- 
mentarian, he has few equals in the state. 

Governor Yale, as his neighbors all call him, has a second wife ; his hrst was 
Miss Sarah E. Banks, of Norwalk, Connecticut ; married in 1851. She died in 

1871, leaving one child, Charles B.Yale, a law student in the office of his father. 
His present wife was Miss Mary L. Hoyt, also of Norwalk; married in October, 

1872, and having one child. 

Governor Yale is a member of the Episcopal church, and senior warden of 
the same. So far as we can ascertain, he has always borne the character of a 
christian gentleman. He is active in church and benevolent enterprises, and 
one of the leading Episcopal laymen in southern Minnesota. 



JOHN S. IRGENS, 

SAINT PAUL. 

JOHN S. IRGENS, secretary of state, and one of the solid farmers of south- 
ern Minnesota, is a son of Ole Irgens, paymaster at the mines at Modum, 
Norway, and Henrietta Christina Calmeyer, and was born in Christiana, Nor- 
way, on the nth of February, 1832. The Irgens, from whom he descended, are 
an old and influential family, many members of it having held high positions in 
the Lutheran church and in political life. 

The subject of this notice was educated by private tutors, and was thorouo-hly 
fitted for business. He speaks four languages. He came to this country in 
1848 ; was a clerk for two years in a mercantile house in New York ; then came 
as far west as Chicago, clerking there awhile, and then going into trade for him- 
self In 1857 he removed to Adams township, Mower county, Minnesota; was 
station agent there for three years, and engaged also in agriculture, which has 



40 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

since been his leading business. He resigned liis station agency to accept the 
office of county treasurer, which otiicc he hild lor tour )'ears. 

On the 1st of I-'elMniary, 1862, Mr. Irgens enlisted as a jirivatc in the i5tli 
Wisconsin I nfantr\', and was promoted to second Heutenant tlie |une toHowing. 
At the awA of one )ear, having nearly lost his hearing, he resigned, and returned 
to Minnesota. 

He was a member of the lower house oi the legislature in 1S75 ; in Novem- 
ber of that year was elected secretary of state, and was re-elected in 1S77, having 
a majority of more than eighteen thousand votes over his competitor. The 
state, it is ocnerally conceded, never had a better officer of the kind. He evi- 
dently believes in undertaking notliing which he cannot do well. In politics, he 
has acted uniforml)- with the republican party. 

Mr. Irgens has long been a member of the Lutheran church, antl has held at 
different times the offices of trustee, treasurer, etc. 

The wife of Mr. Irgens was Miss Louisa P. Arentz, of .Stavanger, Norway, 
their union taking place in Chicago on the iSth of December, 1853. They have 
had seven children, and lost two of them. Ole Henry de Schezoulx, the eldest 
son, has a family and lives at Lyle, Minnesota; Henrietta Maria is the wife of 
Frank Jerabek, of Lyle ; the rest are unmarried. 



HON. RENSSELAER R. NELSON, 

SMXT PACL. 

RENSSELAER RUSSELL NliLSON, United States district judge since 
Minnesota became a state, was born in Cooperstown, Otsego county. New 
York, on the 12th of May, 1826. He is of Irish descent on his father's side, and 
of English and Irish on his mother's. His paternal great-grandfather, John Nel- 
son, came over from Hallibay, Ireland, in 1764, when his grandfather, John Rogers 
Nelson, was a child, and settled in Washington county, New \'ork. There the 
father of Rensselaer, Samuel Nelson, late associate justice of the United States 
supreme court, was born on the loth of Novemlxr, 1792, dying in Cooperstown, 
in Dcccinbcr, 1873. He was in the war of 1812 -15, and his son, the subject of 
this skt'tch, located his land warrant in Minnesota. Some of the family spell the 
name Nc-ilson, Judge Neilson, of Brooklyn, New York, before whom the case of 





^^fySS&B^<,-„ USxrcUxStlfT 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 43 

Rev. Henry W^ard Beecher was tried in 1875, being a second cousin of our sub- 
ject. The mother of Rensselaer was Catherine Ann Russell, a descendant of 
Rev. John Russell, of Hadley, Massachusetts, in whose house the regicides, Goffe 
and Whalley, were concealed for years, and where they died. 

Rensselaer prepared for college in his native town ; entered Yale College at 
the age of si.xteen ; graduated in 1846; read law at first witli Hon. (Tieorge A. 
Starkweather of Cooperstown ; finished his legal studies in New York city with 
James R. Whiting, once on the supreme bench of New York, and was admitted 
to the bar at Cooperstown in the spring of 1849. Alter practicing there a short 
time, Mr. Nelson moved to Saint Paul in 1850, here continuing in practice three 
or four years, then removing to the head of Lake Superior, in Wisconsin, where 
he was district attorney of Douglas county from 1854 to 1856. Returning to 
Saint Paul in 1857, he was appointed one of the territorial judges by President 
Buchanan, and in 1858, on the admission of Minnesota into the Union, he was 
appointed United States district judge, and still holds the office. 

Dating from his appointment of judge of the territory of Minnesota in 1857, 
Judge Nelson has since that time exercised judicial office over a jurisdiction 
commensurate with the state. His ciuties have been, especially for the last ten 
years, of a very arduous and complex character. The criminal laws of the United 
States have been almost exclusively administered in the district court. The pro- 
ceedings in bankruptcy have necessarily been carried on in the same court, and 
he has also, by reason of the great extent of the judicial circuit to which Minne- 
sota belongs, presided alone at many of the terms of that court. He is a work- 
ing judge, attending daily at his chambers, with very rare intermission. His 
judicial tendencies are the result of thorough training in the doctrines of the 
common law as it was expounded before the days of innovation, and his great 
familiarity with the statutory and reported jurisprudence of the federal govern- 
ment is conceded by the entire bar. Long judicial experience in Minnesota has 
given him a thorough acquaintance with the laws of that state, which, as to prac- 
tice in many respects, and as to property, are the laws of the federal courts. He 
has always, while asserting the powers of the United States courts, been duly 
appreciative of the rights of the state, and has never brought his court into that 
region of conflicting jurisdictions created by a duplex judicial system. He pos- 
sesses that judicial instinct whicli makes its way quickly through immaterial de- 
tails to the essential points upcjn which the determination of a cause must turn, 



44 THE UNITED STATES B/OGRAPII/CAL DICTION A K Y. 

and lu' therefore charges juries with great distinctness, and, in cast;s decided by 
him, ])hices the results upon i)lainly discernibhj principles. He enjoys the un- 
(jualilied confidence and r('spect of the l)ar and people of the state. 

In [)olitics, [udge Nelson has been a lifolong ilcniocrat, but he is not a strong 
partisan. 

The wife of Judge Nelson was Mrs. Emma F. Wright, a daughter of Wash- 
ington Beebee, of New York State, their marriage occurring November 3, 185S. 
They ha\'e had two children, both daughters, orily one now living: the elder, 
Emma Beeloee, is at home; the younger, Kate Russell, died in 1869, aged eight 
years. The family attend the Episcopal church. 

[udge Nelson is five feet and six inches tall, and usually weighs about one 
hundred and ninct\- pounds. He has l:)lue eyes, a light or florid comjjlexion, and 
a sanguine-bilious temperament ; is dignified yet familiar, and easy in manners, 
cordial in his address, and a pleasant converser. He has made law and jurispru- 
dence his lift- study, and hence his high standing as a jurist. A state is honored 
by keeping such men on the bench. 



HON. JOHN S. PRINCE, 

SAINT PAIL. 

OKYL of the most striking examples of a self-made man in Minnesota is John 
Stoughtcninirg Prince, who never went to school a day in his lift- alter he 
was eleven years old, and who has earned his own living since that early age. 
There is a lesson in his life which it will be usefid for young men to study. He 
was a son of Joseph and Charlotte (Osborn ) rrincc, and was born in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, on the 7th of May, 182 i. He is a desceiulant of Rev. John Prince, rector 
of East Shefford, in lierkshire, England, and is the eighth John Prince in regular 
succession from this clerical progenitor. The fourth John Prince, great-great- 
grandfather of our sul)ject,was born in Barnstable, England, in 1677, and died on 
Long Island, New York, 1765. Th(; fifth John Prince was born in Barnstable, 
Eno-lanil, on the loth of August, 1716, ami elit-d in liosion, Massachusetts, on the 
2^1 of |uly, 1786. The grandfather of our subject was born in Boston, on the 
22dof July, 1751 ; his father was a native; of the same cilw and died at Men- 
don, Massachusetts, on the 24th of November, 1828. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 45 

When ten years old, the sul^ject of this sketch went to Mendon and spent a 
year or more with his grandparents, there finishing his school education ; at 
eleven was put in a shoe store in Cincinnati, and received two dollars a week 
for his services. 

About 1836 Mr. Prince commenced an apprenticeship at the commission busi- 
ness, acquainting himself in a tew years with its minutest details, and by the con- 
sultation of text books at his leisure, treated himself to a good practical business 
education. 

In 1840 Mr. Prince entered the American Fur Company at Evansville, In- 
diana, and when, two years later, the compan)' suspended operations, he engaged 
with Pierre Chouteau, junior, and Co., who assumed the business, he becomino- 
the purchasing agent of the company for the states ol Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and 
Michigan, and the Territory of Wisconsin. 

In the interest ot the tur company, he located in Saint Paul in 1854, his lead- 
ing business at first being to look after the property of the company in this city. 
At the same time he operated a saw-mill, having charge of it about fifteen years. 
Outside the tur company's property, he dealt largely in real estate on his own 
account, and by the exercise of good judgment and business tact, he accumulated 
much wealth, placing him on a very solid financial foundation. 

Mr. Prince was one of the original corporators of the Saint Paul Fire and 
Marine Insurance Company, and of the Saint Paul and Sioux City Railroad Com- 
pany, and still holds the position of stockholder and director in these institutions, 
both of which are identified with the interests and advancement of the cit)-. He 
has also been instrumental in the erection of many fine stores and dwellings in 
Saint Paul, his latest achievement in that direction beings the completion, on his 
own private account, of a block of five fine brick residences, equal to any in the 
city. Of public enterprises of a benevolent character, he is always among the 
most liberal supporters, and the poor, irrespective of race or color, can always 
rely upon the sympathy and generous aid of himself and his estimable family. 

When the Savings Bank of Saint Paul was organized in 1867, he became its 
cashier, and is now its president. It is very carefully managed, like everything" 
else under the eye of Mr. Prince, and is regarded as one of the soundest institu- 
tions of the kind in the state. 

He was a member of the constitutional convention in 1857, and was one of 
Governor Sible)'s aids, with rank ot colonel ; was mayor of the city of Saint Paul 



46 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in I S6o, 1 86 1, 1S62, 1865 and 1866, being elected tlie last time without opposi- 
tion, and has hail much to do in shapino- the municipal regulations of the city, 
having been ]jresident of the commission of assessments one year and president 
of the boartl of pul)lic works three years, lie is a man of great local influence; 
is public-spirited and energetic, and looks well to the interests of his adopted 
home, lie is proud of tlie city of- .Saint Paul, the great railroad center of the 
state, and the heart of commercial traffic; and the city, in return, may well be 
proud of such men as Mr. Prince, who, with a lew score of faithful co-workers, 
have made Saint Paul what it is. 

In politics, Mr. Prince is a democrat of the Jeffersonian school, but he is quite 
independent, pa\ing great regard to the character of candidates ; he votes tor the 
best men. 

Mr. Princes ami his family belong to the Catholic church. His wife was Miss 
Emma .S. Linck, of ICvansville, Indiana, thc-ir union taking place there on the 2d 
of Mav, 1844. They have had twelve children, of whom seven are living. 



MARTIN S. CHANDLER, 

RliD WIXC. 

MARTIN SPENCER CHANDLER, son of Woodley \V. and Phebe 
W'insor Chandler, anil for the last twenty )'ears sheriti ol Goodhue 
counlw Minnesota, was born at Jamestown, Chaulautpia count)-. New York, 
on the 14th of PY-bruary. 1824. Ht- is of New England stock. His maternal 
oreat-frandfather was an officer in the first war with England, and his grand- 
father, on the same siile, was in the second war. Woodley W. Chandhn- was a 
woolen manufacturer and an t:xlensivc; farmer, and for man)- )-ears one of the 
leading nic;n in Chautaucpia county. His brother, .Spencer ChandUtr, for whom 
our subject was named, was city niarshal of Naslnille, 'Pennessee, for twent)'- 
three )-ears, and when the civil war broke out, was one ot the few men in that 
city who stood l)ra\-(d)' b)- the old Hag. 

Martin was educatetl at the Jamestown and I'redonla acadeniies ; learned 
the taniier aiid currier's trade, but preferred larming, which he tollowed in his 
nati\-e town until 1856, when he came to Minnesota, and openetl a larni at Pine 
Islanil, (ioodhue county, thirty miles from Red Wing. 



s 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 47 

During- the first year he was in this state he was elected one of the three 
county commissioners, serving until 1858; in the autumn of which year he was 
elected sheriff of the county, taking the office on the ist of January, 1859, ^'""^ 
in July, 1878, was nominated for his eleventh consecutive term. He is no doubt 
the most popular officer oi the kind in the state. He has all the elements of 
the faithful and true man, and is well known in the state. 

Mr. Chandler has always been a staunch republican, and is one of the leaders 
of the party in the banner republican county. He was a presidential elector in 
1872, and was elected messenger to carry the vote of the state to Washington, 
but declined in favor of Wilforcl L. Wilson, of Saint Paul. His name has fre- 
quently been mentioned in connection with the office of congressman, but he has 
sedulously refused to let it go before the nominating convention. He is a man of 
a good deal of ability. His (the second) district is strongly republican, and a 
nomination has always been equivalent to an election ; but Washington seems 
to have no attractions for him. In Goodhue county, and wherever known, he is 
highly esteemed. 

Mr. Chandler has taken the fifth or scarlet degree in Odd-Fellowship, and 
the first degree in chapter Masonry. 

On the 14th of February, 1849, Mi^s F"annie F. Caldwell, of Jamestown, New 
York, became the wife of sheriff Chandler, and of three children, whom they 
have had, two died in infancy. Florence C. is the wife of Ira S. Kellogg, of Red 
Winof, one of the oldest drucroists in the state. 



HON. THOMAS P. KELLETT, 

ZUMBROTA. 

ONE of the prominent members of the Stafford Western Emigration Com- 
pany, and a leader in founding the town of Zumbrota, was Thomas Pear- 
son Kellett, a native of the parish of Leeds, England, dating his birth on the ist 
of August, 1814. His father, Samuel Kellett, was a woolen manufacturer, the 
son early learning that trade, and having charge of his father's business at 
eighteen years of age. He left school when only twelve or thirteen, and the rest 
of his education was acquired by economizing time. 

At twenty-one years of age, having a desire to seek his fortune in the new 



48 THE UNITED STATES BlOGKAl'lUCAL DICTIONARY. 

world, Mr. Kcllett crossed the ocean, and spent two years in the manufacturing 
business at Laurel, Chester county, Pennsylvania, going thence to Lowell, Massa- 
chusetts. There he acted as overseer in thc! woolen mills of the Middlesex cor- 
poration until 1856, when he joined the Stafford Western Emigration Company, 
and with lialf-a-dozen other men came to Minnesota to select a site for a town, 
locating at Zumbrota in the summer of that year. In September he aided in 
surveyino- and plotting the village, naming it Zumbrota, adding one syllable to 
Zumbro, the stream on which the town is situated. 

Two months later (November, 1856,) Mr. Kcllctt opened a general store, 
19 by 2S feet, in a shanty made of boards and batten; lias here been in trade 
for tw(,'nty-two years, and is now in a store 24 by 76 feet, with a wing 16 by 20 
feet, and has the largest stock of general merchandise, probably, in the place, 
there being half-a-dozen houses of the same class. Mr. Kellett has seen Zum- 
brota grow from a houseless site of a town to a lively village of a thousand people 
or more, two railroads entering it in 1878 — a town which never had a saloon, and 
is full of the indices of sobriety, industry and thoughtfulness for the young — 
good schools, churches, etc. The founders of the town were a considerate, high- 
mincU'd class of people, and the impress of their sound judgment is stamped on 
everything. 

While engaged unremittingly in .mercantile pursuits, Mr. Kellett has held 
many positions of honor and trust. He was president of the emigration company 
a few years; was justice of the peace for six years, with little to do in a temper- 
ance town ; was chairman of the board of supervisors one or two terms; is now 
on his third term as notary public, and is president of the school board of the 
independent district of Zumbrota. 

Mr. Kellett was a member of the house of representatives from Goodhue 
count)- in 1872 and 1873, and was connected prominently with the bill releasing 
the towns in Goodhue county, so far as the legislature coidd do it, from the obli- 
gation to the l)ubu(|ue and Saint Paul Railroad Company, voted three )-ears be- 
fore; also with the Ijill to abolish the fence law, so far as it relates to the same 
county, thus releasing the f<u-mers from the obligation to fence their lands every 
year. In every official position to which he has been called he has proved faith- 
ful to his trusts. 

In politics, Mr. Kellett was originally a whig, and has acted with the repub- 
lican party since it had an existence, often attending state and other conventions 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 49 

as a delegate. He is a blue-lodge and chapter Mason, there being both in Zum- 
brota, and was master of the lodge for seven consecutive years. Religiously, his 
connection is with the Congrerational church. 

Mr. Kellett was first married in the parish of Leeds, England, in 1835, to 
Miss Anne Barker, she dying in 1872, leaving five children. One year later he 
married Mrs. Frances M. Cummings, of Bunker Hill, Illinois. 



ROYAL D. CONE, 

WINONA. 

ONE of the oldest merchants in Winona is Royal Day Cone, twenty-four 
years in trade here. Financial tornadoes have swept over the country since 
he settled in Minnesota, and thousands of other merchants have been prostrated, 
but he has always stood erect, being a prudent and very careful manager of his 
busines.s. He is a native of Chenango county. New York, and was born at New 
Berlin on the 8th of November, 1821, his parents being Benjamin and Emily 
(Root) Cone. The family early settled in Connecticut, and his grandfather, 
Joseph Cone, a physician of considerable prominence, settled in Pittsfield, Otsego 
county, New York. The Roots were also a New England family. 

Royal was reared on his father's farm, receiving such education as a district 
school furnished; at twenty became a clerk in a store in the village of New Ber- 
lin, continuing in that position there for eight or nine years; went into the stove 
trade with a cousin, in Rochester, New York, about 1852, and after being in busi- 
ness there two or three years, in April, 1855, settled in Winona, here opening a 
stove and tinware store on part of the site which he still occupies. He com- 
menced in 'a small frame building, which, after being repeatedly enlarged, was 
destroyed by fire in 1862, with a loss of ten thousand dollars. He rebuilt the 
next year, the building being brick, 40 by 125 feet, and three stories above the 
basement, neatly finished with stone trimmings. 

During the first two or three years of his trade in Winona, Mr. Cone averaged, 
perhaps, fourteen thousand dollars or fifteen thousand dollars annually ; his busi- 
ness had a gradual expansion, and of late years has averaged from one hundred 
and forty thousand dollars to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars — built up 
entirely on true business principles, and in accordance with the rules of strictest 



50 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

inteority. He has the largest store of the kind in the city, dealing in all branches 
of shelf and heavy hardware, wholesale as well as retail. 

Mr. Cone served at an early day on the school board of Winona, and in the 
council, and was mayor two terms. M. Wheeler .Sargeant was elected fn'sl mayor 
of Winona, defeating Mr. Cone. 

He was originally a whig, and latterly has been a republican — firm in his prin- 
ciples, and more willing to aid his friends in securing office than to accept it 
himself. 

Mr. Cone is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and holds the 
offices of steward and treasurer of the same. Men of more consistent christian 
life or more solid character are scarce in Winona. 

Mrs. Cone was Miss Ruena Merchant, of New Berlin, New York, their mar- 
riage taking place on the 3d of July, 1849. -'^'"'^ died a few years ago, leaving- 
four children, Ida E., Etta M., Francis R., and Hattie R. 



AUGUSTE L. LARPENTEUR, 

SAIXT PAUL. 

NO man now living in Saint Paul is more fully identified with its history than 
Auguste Louis Larpenteur, who located here in 1843, and was one of the 
three commissioners, with General H. H. Sibley and Captain Louis Roberts, to 
enter the lands on which the city was founded. When he landed here from the 
steamer Otter, in September, 1843, there were not more than five white families 
here. He has lived in Saint Paul thirty-five years, and has seen the embryo village, 
with a score of wigwams to one white man's cabin, expand into a city of thirty-five 
thousand inhabitants. Saint Paul, as it stands to-tlay. with its two and three story 
brick and stone blocks, stretching from street to street ; its three and four story 
hotels, of the most soliil build and most elegant finish anel outfit, and its churches, 
rivaling anything of the kind in the northwest, has been made just what it is by 
Mr. Larpenteur and others like him, —men full of ])ublic spirit, energy, pluck, and 
other resources suitable for town building. 

Mr. Larpenteur is a son of Louis Auguste Larpenteur and Malinda nl'C Sim- 
mons, and was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the i6th of May, 1823. His 
grandfather, Louis Benoist Larpenteur, first visited the United States in 181 6, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 51 

the year after the battle of Waterloo, his mission being to ascertain the where- 
abouts of the emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. Others came with him on the same 
mission. He searched from Bangor, Maine, to New Orleans, Louisiana. Re- 
turning northward, at Bordentown, New Jersey, he met several hundred, per- 
haps two thousand, of his countrymen, who had fled to this country after the 
sad disaster to the French army on the i8th of June, 1815. Of them he heard 
of the fate of the emperor — his banishment to the island of St. Helena. Deter- 
mined not to live under the rule of the Bourbons, Mr. Larpenteur returned to 
France, disposed of his property, came to this country with his family, and set- 
tled in Baltimore. His son, Louis Auguste, father of Auguste Louis, was then 
about eighteen years old, and married Miss Simmons in 182 1. She died when 
Auguste was fiye or six years old, and he went to live with his grandfather, who 
was a gardener, and who made a pet of his grandson, not allowing him to do 
much work. He received only an ordinary common-school education. 

At eighteen years of age Auguste went with his uncle, Eugene N. Larpen- 
teur, who was a horticulturist, to Saint Louis, Missouri, assisting his uncle two 
years, and at twenty years of age engaged with William Hartshorn to come to 
Saint Paul and act as clerk and interpreter for the Indian traders, Hartshorn and 
Jackson, Henry Jackson, the other member of the firm, being alread)^ in Saint 
Paul. WHien they reached this place with the first installments of merchandise, 
on the 15th of September,and the Otter approached the shore, four or five hun- 
dred Sioux Indians gave a welcoming and far-resounding whoop, the peculiar 
music ot which Mr. Larpenteur has not forgotten. 

Hartshorn and Jackson were the second Indian traders here, Mr. ]. W. Simp- 
son being their predecessor in trade. After one octwo changes in the original 
firm of Hartshorn and Jackson, in 1848, Mr. Laqaenteur and others bought out the 
old firm, and for several years its name was Freeman, Larpenteur and Co., the first 
members being D. B. Freeman and A. J. Freeman, and the last, William H. Ran- 
dall, junior. 

Like ten thousand other merchants in trade in 1S57, Mr. Larpenteur felt the 
financial cyclone of that year, but did not get down too low to rise again. His 
recuperative energies were first-class, and he still has the physical and mental 
elasticity of middle life. On the whole, his success as a tradesman is far above 
the average, and he never exhibited more activity than at present. He is a 
wholesale merchant on Jackson street, near the railroad depot and steamboat 



52 THE UNTTRD STATES BIOGRAPHICAI. D/CTIOiVARY. 

laiulin;^. I'robably no merchant in Minnesota is better or more favorably known. 
Here in St. Paul he is held in the highest esteem, being regarded as one of the 
landmarks of the city, which he aided in locating and laying out. 

In 1848 he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land for himself and has 
the |)archment title to the same, with the signature of President Zachary Taylor 
attached to it -a parchment which he keeps as a family relic. He has also 
another parchment, printed in French, which he treasures still higher. It is tlie 
discharge of his great-grandfather from the French army after the revolution. It 
is dated April i, 1792, and signed by Morleir, commander-in-chief of the National 
Guards. 

Mr. Larpenteur speaks the French and Sioux languages with eejual facility 
with the English, and can talk readily with the Chippewas. Though his i-tluca- 
tion has been picked up while immersed in business, it is of no meager character, 
he l)eing a very well-informed man. 

Mr. Larpenteur was one of the first treasurers of Ramsey county ; has held 
nearly every office in the municipality of Saint Paul, and has proved faithlul in 
every trust. He has usually voted the democratic ticket, and during the civil 
war was known as a staunch friend of the Union. 

On the 7th of December, 1845, Miss Mary Josejjhine Presley became the 
wife of Mr. Larpenteur, and they have ten children, five boys and five girls, all 
born in Saint Paul. Thc' whole family are members of the Catholic church. 



HON. HENRY L. iMOSS, 

• .V.1/.V7- PAUL. 

HENRY LAWRENCE MOSS, the first United States district attorney 
for the territory of Minnesota, is the son of Samuel Moss, merchant, and 
was born in the town of Augusta, Oneida county, New York, on the 23d of 
March, 1819. His mother, before her marriage, was Fanny Durkee. The pro- 
genitor of this branch of the Moss family came over from England about two 
centuries ago, the nearer ancestors of Henry settling in Cheshire, Connecticut. 
His jKiternal grandfather was in the first war with the mother country; his 
maternal in the second. 

Henry spent his youth in securing an education. In 1835 his lather's taniily 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 53 

moved to Sandusky, Ohio. The next year he returned to New York, entered 
Hamilton College, Clinton, and graduated in 1840. He read law first with A. O. 
Osborne, of Waterville, New York, and afterward with Parish and Sadler, of San- 
dusky, Ohio, being admitted to practice in January, 1842. He opened an office in 
Sandusk)',and practiced there till 1845; then moved to Platteville, Wisconsin, and 
was there in practice with Hon. Ben. C. Eastman, afterward member of congress. 

In April, 1848, Mr. Moss came to Minnesota, and located at first in Stillwater. 
Early the next year, on the organization of the territory of Minnesota, in which 
work Mr. Moss aided, he was appointed by President Taylor, on the 4th of 
March, United States district attorney, and held the office until June, 1853, re- 
moving to Saint Paul, the capital, three years before the expiration of his term. 
He was reappointed to the same office by President Lincoln, in September, 1862, 
at the solicitation of both United .States senators from Minnesota, and held the 
office until May, 1867. 

F'rom the appointments received from Presidents Taylor and Lincoln, it will 
naturally be inferred that Mr. Moss was first a whig and then a republican. He 
still belongs to the latter party, but has never been an active partisan. He re- 
ceived his appointments, not because of great service rendered the party, but 
because of his fitness for the office. He has always discharged public duties with 
the utmost faithfulness, hi a private capacity he has also rendered invaluable 
services to the state. As before intimated, in 1848, in connection with General 
H. H. Sibley, Hon. Henry M. Rice, Lieutenant-Governor William Holcombe, 
and others, he aided in organizing the territory; and the winter of 1856-57 he 
spent with Mr. Rice at the national capital, aiding to secure the land grant for 
the railroads of Minnesota, thus enabling this state to inaugurate her grand svs- 
tern of railways; the benefits of which are beginning to be thoroughly realized. 
Mr. Moss is fully identified with local as well as state interests, he being public- 
spirited, and one of the most useful citizens of Saint Paul. 

He is a member of the Presbyterian church, has always borne an excellent 
character, and is warmlv esteemed by his neighbors. Naturally kindhearted and 
benevolent, he is a triend to the poor and needy. 

His wife was Miss Amanda Horsford, of Charlotte, Vermont; married on the 
20th of September, 1849. They have no children. Mrs. Moss was one of those 
teachers who came to the west many years ago, under the auspices of Governor 
Slade, of Vermont, and Miss Catherine Beecher, and was the first female teacher 



54 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in Stillwater. Through her efforts the first school building was put up there — 
the second in the territory. She is active in religious, benevolent and humane 
enterprises, and last \car was vice-president of the Minnesota State Magdalen 
Society. 



HON. WILLIAiM PFAENDER, 

NEW ULM. 

WILLLXM PFAENDER, treasurer of state, is a native of Ciermany, and 
was born at Heilbronn, Wurtemberg, on the 6th of July, 1826, his parents 
being Jacob and lohanna (Kuenzel) Pfaender. He received what is called in 
this country a common-school education; clerked in a store till 1848, when he 
emit'^rated to this country, and settled on the Ohio river. He had his home in 
Newport, Kentucky, but did business in Cincinnati, being a bookkeeper in the 
office of a German paper, called the "Deutscher Republikaner." In 1856, with a 
colony from Cincinnati, Mr. Pfaender came to Brown county, Minnesota, settled 
on a farm near New Ulm, and three years afterward was elected to the lower 
house of the legislature, serving in the session of 1859-60. 

In September, 1861, Mr. Pfaender entered the ist Minnesota Batter\- as 
senior first lieutenant. In March, 1862, the battery joined the army of the Ten- 
nessee, and when at the battle ot -Shiloh, on the 6th of April, 1862, the captain 
was wounded early in the morning, Lieutenant Pfaender took commaml. He 
afterwartl participated in the siege of Corinth, and was with the battery until the 
Sioux outbreak in Minnesota (August, 1862), when he was detailed to return to 
Minnesota, and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of mounted 
rangers, — this regiment was called into service expressly to operate against the 
hostile Indians, —and afterward assumed the same position in the 2d regiment 
Minnesota Cavalry. During his service in the cavalry he was most of the time 
in command of the frontier defenses in Minnesota, and was mustered out with 
his regiment in December, 1865. 

Here it should be mentioned that immediately after the first whites were 
killed in Meeker county, in the summer of 1862, the blooily Sioux made an 
attack on New Ulm, the families in that vicinity not murdered fleeing to that vil- 
lage for safety. The family of Colonel Pfaender lied from the farm and reached 
New Ulm, but all his personal property was destroyed by the rapacious savages. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 55 

Colonel Pfaender resumed fanning, continuing it until iS/O^when he engaged 
in the lumber trade at New Ulm, soon afterward, in company with other parties, 
building a planing mill and sash factory. 

He was a member of the state senate from 1870 to 1872 ; was elected mayor 
of New Ulm in 1873 and served two terms; while in that office, in the autumn 
of 1875, was elected state treasurer, and was re-elected in 1877. He has been 
a republican since there was such a party, and is one of its most influential Ger- 
man leaders in the state. He was a presidential elector in i860, when Mr. Lincoln 
was first chosen President. His religious views would be denominated "liberal." 

He was married in December, 1851, to Miss Catharine Pfau, of Cincinnati, 
Ohio, the fruit of this union being fifteen children, four-fifths of them yet living. 



RESOLVO O. CADY, M.D., 

BUFFALO. 

DR. CADY, president of the Wright and Carver Counties Medical Society, 
and a physician for thirty-five years, is a native of Dublin, Ireland, and was 
born on the 8th of October, 1819. His father, an attorney by profession, emi- 
grated to the United States about 1827, and settled in the town of Nassau, 
Rensselaer county, New York, and died there in 1849. His mother, whose 
maiden name was Rachel Campbell, and who was of Scotch descent, died in 
1856. The subject of this sketch received only a common-school education ; at 
eighteen commenced studying medicine with Dr. Geo. W. Bishop, of Painted 
Post, Steuben county. New York; attended lectures at Geneva, in the same 
state, and graduated in March, 1844. 

Dr. Cady practiced twelve years in Kane and Lake counties, Illinois ; six 
years at Novelty, Knox county, Missouri, and settled in Buffalo, his present 
home, in June, 1862. At an early da}' after coming to Minnesota Dr. Cady had 
very extensive rides, being at one time the only regular physician practicing in 
Wright county, and he had calls in Hennepin, Sherburne, Meeker, Benton, 
Stearns, Carver and McLeod counties. He has had eminent success in his pro- 
fession, and his reputation never stood better than it does at this time ; but on 
account of age he has curtailed his rides, rarely going now more than eight or 
ten miles from home, e.xcept to see old patients who will have no one else. The 



56 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Doctor has a farm of om- hundred and sixty acres, two miles from the village of 
Buffalo, more than half of it under improvement, his sons doing most of the work. 

Dr. Cad\- has usually affiliated with the democratic party, but latter])- has not 
had uolitics enough to merit defining. Me was coroner (jf Wright countv for six 
years, but has never heUl a civil office outside his profession. To it he has been 
thoroughly devoted, and being a careful reader oi medical works, keeps well 
posted in the healing art. 

He is a third-degree Mason and a scarlet-degree Odd-Fellow, but rarely 
attends the meetings of either order. Professional duties take the precedence 
of secret societies. 

The Doctor was lirst married in 1840, to Miss Eliza Jane -Smith, of Chemung 
county, she dying in 1839. Ot five children whom she had, four are yet living. 
Two sons, Willis Hiram and George Leroy, are married and live in Buflalo ; the 
otlu;r two, Victor and Walter, are single. He was married the second time in 
i860, his wife being Miss Sarah A. Davis, of Kno.x county, Missouri. By this 
union they have had three children. 



HON. EDMUND RICE, 

SAINT PAUL. 

EDMUND RICE is a lineal descendant of Deacon Edmund Rice, who 
came trom the county ot Hertfordshire, England, and settled in .Sudbury, 
now Wayland, Massachusetts, about 1638. His wife and at k;ast seven children 
came with him, and from his offspring has sprung a numerous famil\-, scattered 
over most of the states of the Union. Its genealogical histor_\' was published in 
Boston in 1858, and in looking over its pages we find that members of it figured 
extensively in the struggle for American independence, and have occupied almost 
every conceivable position of trust and honor in the church, in the common- 
wealth, and in the national congress. A brother of our subject, Hon. Henry M. 
Rice, was one of the first men to represent the State of Minnesota in the United 
States senate. A member of the family remoteh' related to the Saint Paul 
branch now occupies the gubernatorial chair in the old Bay State. 

The first wife of Deacon Rice was named Tamazine, and that rather original 
name, sometimes spelled Tamazin, runs down through three or four generations. 



I 




^'S: "^ 




cZ^ 




Cu^- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 59 

it being a pet christian name. Among his eleven children were Matthew, 
Thomas, Samuel, Joseph, Benjamin, Lydia and Ruth, all Bible names, and two 
or three generations later we find Abel, Amariah, Asa, Matthias, Hezekiah, 
Daniel, Keziah, Susanna, Tamar, Bezaleel, Zipporah, and a score of other Bible 
names, scattered through the long lists of separate families. 

The subject of this sketch, one of ten children, is the seventh generation from 
the Sudbury deacon. The maiden name of his mother was Ellen Durkee, a 
cousin of Hon. Charles Durkee, e.x-United States senator from Wisconsin, and 
governor of Utah. His grandfather was Jedediah Rice, and his grandmother 
was Jemima Hastings, of English ancestry. 

Edmund Rice was born in Waitsfield, Vermont, on the 14th of February, 
1819, and spent his younger years in clerking, receiving a very limited common- 
school education. When but ten years of age, death deprived him of a father's 
advice and counsel. In 1838 he came as far west as Kalamazoo, Michigan, where 
he read law with Stuart and Miller, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. While 
a resident of Michigan he was master in chancery, register of the court of chan- 
cery for the third circuit, and clerk of the supreme court. In 1847 ^'^^ went into 
the Mexican war as first lieutenant Company A, ist Michigan Volunteers, and 
served until the close of the war. 

In July, 1849, ji^'st after Minnesota assumed its territorial name, Mr. Rice 
came to Saint Paul, and in the firm of Rice, Hollinshead and Becker, practiced 
law until 1855. Two years later he became president of the Minnesota and Pacific 
Railroad Company, and was also of its successor, the Saint Paul and Pacific and 
the Saint Paul and Chicago Railroad Companies, continuing in that position until 
1872. He is one of the trustees of the first division of the Saint Paul and 
Pacific Railroad Company, and one of the most energetic and competent rail- 
road men in the state. 

Mr. Rice has frequently served in the two branches of the legislature. He 
was in the territorial legislature in 185 i ; in the state senate in 1864 and 1865; 
in the house in 1867, again in 1872; and in the senate, 1873 and 1874, and in 
the house sessions in 1877 and 1878 — in all eleven sessions. With his large 
amount of practical knowledge, his great business tact and force of character, 
and his large experience in legislative matters, he makes a very useful member 
of such a body. 

Mr. Rice grew up in the ranks of the democracy, and has never fallen out. 



6o THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

He was chairman of the democratic state central committee in the presidential 
campaign of 1872, and an elector-at-large in the campaign of 1876. 

His wife was Miss Anna M. Acker, daughter of Hon. Henry Acker, of 
Kalamazoo, Michigan; married in November, 1848. Of eleven children, the 
fruit of this union, all are living but the second daughter, Jessie, who married 
Frank H. Clark, of Philadelphia, in 1871, and died in October, 1874. Ellen, the 
eldest daughter, is the wife of Henry A. Roardman, of Saint Paul. The rest of 
the children are single. 



HORACE R. BIGELOW, 

SMXT PAUL. 

ONE of the attorneys, the longest in practice in Saint Paul, and the president 
of the Ramsey County Bar Association, is Horace Ransom Bigelow, son 
of Erastus and Statira Ransom Bigelow, members of the agricultural class. He 
was born in Watervliet, Rensselaer county, New York, on the 13th of March, 
1820, and comes from the Connecticut branch of the Bigelow family. His grand- 
father, Otis Bigelow, was a revolutionary patriot and soldier. Erastus Bigelow 
moved his family to Froy when Horace was an infant, and a few years later to 
Oneida count)-, where the son received his literary education, mainly in the public 
school of Sangerfield anel the gymnasium at Ulica, in that county. He aided his 
father in farming, in youth and earl)' manhood, teaching school during this 
period in the winter, and sometimes at other seasons of the year. Some time 
after having arrived at age he concluded to study law ; read with Messrs. Charles 
A. Mann and John H. Edmonds, of Utica; was admitted to the bar in that city 
in 1847, and there practiced in compau)- with Edward S. Brayton until 1853, and 
in the autumn of that year he came to Minnesota in company with Judge Charles 
E. Flandrau, and located in Saint Paul. 

While in Ulica, Mr. Bigelow was tor a time clerk ol the recorder's court of 
that city, and acted for a considerable period as clerk ot the supreme court and 
other courts in Oneida count)-, but has accepted no office since settling in Min 
nesota. Law has been his study, and is his chief intellectual delight. By close 
application to his profession he has risen, step by step, till he has but few 
peers and no su[)erior as an attorney in the State of Minnesota. He possesses 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL D/CTIOA'ARY 6 1 

an intuitive grasp of legal questions ; his mind is naturally analytical, and with 
the aid of careful professional training in his early life, the most complex prob- 
lems of the law are by him, with great facility and accuracy, resolved into their 
elementary constituent principles and simplified. As the head of a firm, he has 
conducted a general practice during his residence in Minnesota, embracing all 
branches of the profession save criminal law, in which he would never engage. 
Although a clear and forcible reasoner and an easy speaker, he has no taste for 
the advocacy of causes before a jury, always preferring the presentation of the 
legal aspects ot a litigation to the court. Before the courts of last resort his 
practice has been very extensive and successful, he never failing to engage the 
interest and command the respect of those courts to a remarkable degree. For 
the last fifteen years his individual attention has been largely and almost ex- 
clusively devoted to railroad and corporation law, during which period he has 
been the leading counsel ot some of the most influential corporations in the 
northwest. Mr. Bigelow is in the enjoyment of the full vigor of his faculties, per- 
fected by a varied and ripe experience. 

In politics, he is a republican of whig antecedents, but has never been an 
active politician. He attends the Presbyterian church, but is not a member. 

In June, 1862, he married Miss Cornelia Sherrill, of New Hartford, Oneida 
county. New York, and they have had five children, all but one yet living. 



DOLSON B. SEARLE, 

SAfNT CLOUD. 

DOLSON BUSH SEARLE, a leading attorney in Stearns county, Minne- 
sota, is a son of Almon D., a farmer, and Jane (Scott) Searle, and dates 
his birth at Alleghany, Alleghany county, New York, on the 4th of June, 1841. 

On the breaking out of the civil war in 1861, Mr. Searle enlisted in company 
I, 64th New York Infantry. He was in the battle of Bull Run; siege of York- 
town; all the battles before Richmond under General McClellan; in the Seven 
Days' fight, and Fair Oaks. 

In June, 1863, he was detached trom field duty by order of the secretary of 
war, Stanton; received a civil appointment in the war department, where he had 
charge ol an important branch in the adjutant-general's office, and held that 



62 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHI-CAL DICTIONARY. 

position for several years until he resigned to enter the legal profession. He 
graduated in Columbia Law College at Washington. 

In May, 1S71, Mr. Searle came to Saint Cloud; entered the law office of 
Judge E. O. liamlin : became his partner in January, 1872, and in November of 
the next year, the judge mo\ing to PennsyK ania. Mr. Searle took the whole busi- 
ness of the firm in his own hands, and has since been alone in the practice. It is 
very extensive, and very remunerative. Few young men ever toiled harder to 
secure a literary and legal education ; and few young men, beginning practice 
with an empty pocket, ever had more prompt or better success financially, or rose 
more rapidly. 

Mr. Searle applies himself very closely to his profession ; is well read, and 
beino- thoroughly posted on law points, and very clear, he makes an excellent 
counselor — none better in this city or vicinity. 

The wife of Mr. Searle was Miss Lizzie Clark, niece of Mr. N. P. Clark, of 
Saint Cloud, and a graduate of the Saint Cloud Normal School. They were 
united in marriage on the r6th of February, 1875. 



MAJOR WILLIAM H. DIKE, 

FARIBAl'LI. 

WILLIAM HAMMOND DIKE, a resident of Minnesota since 1857, 
and one of the most energetic business men who ever lived in Rice county, 
is a native of Rutland county, Vermont, being born at Pittsford, on the i8th 
of May, 1813. His father, Jonathan Dike, for many years high sheriff of that 
county, was born in Chittenden, Vermont. His great-grandfather was in the 
first war with England, and his father in the second. The latter reached 
Plattsburg while the battle was progressing, but not in season to take part in 
it, and refused to draw a pension. The wife of Jonathan Dike was Tamizian 
Hammond, a native of Pittsford, Vermont. The famil)' moved into the village 
of Rutland when William was about six years old, where the son attended 
school a small portion of each year until he was thirteen, when he left home 
and lived for many years with two maternal uncles, — Charles F. and John C. 
Hammond, of Crown Point, Essex county, New York. With them he clerked 
until he was eighteen, with six months' schooling during this time. The 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 6 



o 



Hammonds were engaged in lumbering as well as mercantile pursuits, and for 
a period of several years Mr. Dike had the oversight of this branch of their 
business. They had also a blast furnace, and were extensive manufacturers 
of iron, in which business Mr. Dike had an interest with them for six or seven 
years, also in the store. 

In the spring of 1857 he left Crown Point, settled in Faribault and com- 
menced banking, real-estate and milling business, in connection with other 
parties. He built what is known as the Dike Mill, and the first flour shipped 
to Chicago and New York from Minnesota went from his mill, which was 
built in 1858, the year Minnesota entered the Union in her sovereign robes. 
At an early day people came a long way to get their grist ground, usually with 
ox teams ; a distance of forty, fifty and sixty miles was not uncommon, and one 
time two men, with two yoke of o.xen and grists for half-a-dozen families, came 
Irom the southwestern part of Blue Earth county, a distance of more than 
eighty miles. Soon after the First National Bank of Faribault was opened Mr. 
Dike became its cashier, resigning at the end of a year or two. The last few 
years he has spent in taking care of his property, which is somewhat scattered. 
Besides his homestead of eight or nine acres, in the southern part of the city, 
and several small bodies of improved land in different sections of Rice county, 
he has unimproved in Houston, Watseca, Watonwan, Dodge, Blue Earth and 
Le Sueur counties, in the ag-gregate two thousand acres or more. 

A little episode in his life occurred when the civil war broke out, in April, 
1861. He raised a company in two days for the ist regiment; went in as 
captain of company H ; was made major before leaving the state ; participated 
in the first battle of Bull Run, and on that disastrous day was one of the last 
members of the regiment to quit the field ; hunting up, just before leaving, the 
body of Captain McKune, securing his sword, belt and watch, and kindly send- 
ing them to his widow. Just after this battle a gentleman, residing in Wash- 
ington, thus spoke of his heroic bravery, and that of Lieutenant-Colonel Miller, 
on that occasion : 

Major Dike's conduct is especially mentioned by all as having been cool, unexcited and really 
brave. He was among the last to leave, i)raying, beseeching and imploring the men to stand. If 
one-half appeared in the newspapers that I hear of him, he would be the Roderick of the battle. 
He goes home to-morrow, intending to recruit the somewhat thinned ranks. He is a heavy artillery, 
any way, either as a man or a soldier — as popular as a man can be wherever he goes, and as 
modest in speaking of his own exploits as though he ran at the first fire. 



64 THE UA'/TF.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

About the same time another newspaper thus spoke of Major Dike: 

This gallant officer has won the plaudits of the brave men he had the honor to lead, in part, to 
battle on the fatal 21st of July. It was his big heart and genuine love of tlie stars and stripes that 
prompted him to take up arms, and the good account given of him is just what was expected by all 
who knew the man. 

The Saint Paul "Press," of the 21st of August, 1861, thus spoke of Major 

Dike, just as he was returning to the Potomac, after a brief visit to Faribault to 

look after his private business: 

While all accounts of the- Minnesota regiment, whether in camp or on the field, have attested 
the fidelity, coolness and bravery of Major Dike, yet there are some further particulars of the man 
and his valuable services to the regiment, to which we desire to refer. His energy and efficiency 
as a man of business, concurring with his individual liberality, were of immense service in the 
organization of the regiment, as every one familiar with events at Fort Snelling will attest. We are 
not surprised to hear tliat since the battle at Manassas the wounded of the Minnesota regiment have 
received constant proofs of his warm-hearted sympathy. He would be sure to make the cause of 
every sufferer his own. 

The private business of Major Dike was so pressing, that at the end of six 
months (October, 1861,) he resigned and returned home. 

In politics, he was originally a whig, and of late years has affiliated with the 
republicans. Against his wishes, and in the face of his refusal to go before the 
convention, he was nominated by republicans and war democrats for governor 
in 1 86 1, but peremptorily refused to stand as a candidate for that liigh office. 
Here is his modest letter, refusing to stand as the nominee : 

Camp Stonk, Edward's Fkkr\, Maryland, .SeptL-mber u. 1S61. 
(). Brown, Editor Faribault "Central Republican." 

Friend Brown, — When I was in Minnesota, a great number of persons of all political parties 
called upon me and urged me to accept the Union nomination for governor; while acknowledging 
the compliment intended with gratitude, I finally left the matter in the hands of friends to relieve me 
from the necessity of declining it. by requesting that the nomination be conferred on some other 
person. 

When I returned to my regiment I found that an engagement with the enemy imminent, and our 
First Regiment (at the front of the post of danger at this point) close enough to hold conversation, 
and hold it daily, with pickets sent out to watch our lines. Under such circumstances I do not feel 
justified in accepting the nomination for any civil office. I cannot accept for other reasons of a 
personal nature, but this I might, under ordinary circumstances, forego. I therefore beg all friends 
to accept my sincere thanks for the honor they would have done me, and respectfully but positively 
decline being run for any office by any party or under any circumstances. My private business 
is in such a condition that when I can see a propriety in time and circumstances, I must give it my 
supervision; but even that, for the present, must be dismissed, and my whole attention given to my 
imperiled country. Most respectfully, your obedient servant, William H. Dike. 

Major Dike has been twice married : first on the 29th of June, 1841, to Miss 

Louisa T. Alvord, of Rutland, Vermont, sister of Benjamin .-^Ivord, paymaster- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 65 

general of the United States. She died on the 21st of March, 1855, leaving one 
daughter, Mary Hammond, who died on the 23d of September, i860. His 
present wife was Miss Mathilde M. Bates, of Boston, Massachusetts ; married 
on the 14th of December, 1858. She accompanied her husband and his regi- 
ment to the south ; was with him during all his service there, often visiting the 
hospitals at Washington, and ministering to the wants of the wounded, sick 
and suffering. The night before the battle of Bull Run the Major put a one- 
hundred-dollar bill in her hands, requesting her to use it in procuring delicacies 
for the sick soldiers in the Georgetown Hospital, which she did. 

Major Dike has been the victim of misplaced confidence once or twice, 
suffering pecuniarily from partnership connections in business, but has a com- 
petency ; is in fact independent in his circumstances, and in his delightful home 
has all the comforts to which a remarkably busy and a successful life would seem 
to entitle him. A more liberal and patriotic man never lived in Faribault. 
When he enlisted his company, at the opening of the war, he took the money 
out of his own pocket to support them till mustered in at Fort Snelling ; paid 
out thousands of dollars during the rebellion to help on the Union cause; in 
March, 1865, he was appointed to solicit contributions to the great fair held at 
Chicago, under the direction of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission and 
Soldiers' Home; no man in the state working with more zeal to aid in that 
grand outpouring of humane generosity. 

We conclude this sketch with an article which appeared in a republican 
Faribault paper, just after Major Dike had left the army, giving an account of 
what it calls "his first, second and only public speeches," headed with the motto: 
" Not Words, but Deeds." 

Major Dike has never been suspected of military aspirations. At the time when the present war 
broke out he was known only as occupying a high position in the first class of business men — kind 
and prompt, cheerful and obliging. When it became necessary to raise a company here for the 
Minnesota First, resort was had, as elsewhere, to a call for a public meeting. 

The time arrived — patriotic speeches by patriotic speakers came off all very well in their way. 
But there is no fighting mettle in mere speeches — ^ there was no powder and ball in them — nor could 
they induce any to join the list of those " to kill or to be killed " for the honor of the country. A dark 
cloud of cold silence settled down upon the hall and the audience, till at length a cry came for 
"Dike, Mr, Dike, Squire Dike — a speech, a speech!" "Mr. Dike is called for, will he step for- 
ward and favor the audience with a short speech .'' " 

With a significant look and bearing, peculiarly his own, that gentleman instantly headed and 
signed the list of volunteers, and dispensing from his side-pocket sufficient of the material aid to 
start the enterprise comfortably, he remarked, "That is my speech." It was his 'first public speech. 
8 



66 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

It aroused the life-blood of his fellow-citizens, wlio rallied at once to his standard. A noble com- 
pany was raised, witli which he immediately repaired to Fort Snelling for discipline and drill. After 
several weeks' efficient drilling, the regiment, under the command of the gallant Gorman, repaired 
to the national cajjitol ; and thence, under orders of superiors in command, to the battle of Hull 
Run, where the Minnesota First was dedicated to the service of the governnient and the country in a 
baptism of blood. 

There, wliere the bullets were as thick as whortleberries in .\ugust, Major Dike stopped not 
to inquire whether the patriotic speakers whom he had parted with at the Metropolitan Hall, had 
reached the battle-field, to share with him and his the perils of the day, or whether they had 
perchance remained behind in the pursuit of private business, in the enjoyment of family, friends 
and home comforts. He was there, and there he faced the enemy and fought out the fight like a 
man. This was his second public speech. 

He has remained in the service up to a short time since. When it was difficult fbr government 
to induce volunteers to enlist, and more difficult to procure suitable officers. Major Dike abandoned 
his own business for the time — threw his person and his influence into the crisis — volunteered and 
accepted an appointment, all as a matter of duty, and not to gratify any military ambition. 

Now, when the ranks of our citizen soldiery are readily filled up, and other competent 
gentlemen are found justly ambitious to fill his position, he has felt at liberty to resign his post, 
and return to his legitimate business; and, so here he is, surrounded by his many warm friends 
at home. 



HON. GEORGE L. OTIS, 

SAINT PAUL. . 

AMONG the leading lawyers ot Ramsey county, Minnesota, is George L. 
- Otis, a resident oi Saint Paul tor nearly t\vent\-four years. He is a native 
of Cortland county. New York, a son of Isaac and Caroline Curtiss Otis, and 
dates his birth on the 8th of October, 1829. He belongs to the old Massa- 
chusetts branch of the Otis family. The Curtisses are a Connecticut family. 

When George was si.x or seven years old, his parents moved to the south 
part of Barry county, near Kalamazoo, Michigan, where the son lived on his 
father's tarm until about eighteen years of age, receiving, meanwhile, an academic 
education at the Kalamazoo Institute, under the charge of President J. A. B. 
.Stone. Subsequently he spent two years at an institution in Owego, Tioga 
county, New York; then taught awhile at Newark X'alley and Kalamazoo, Mich- 
igan. He commenced reading law in the last named place, with Messrs. Balch 
and DeYoe, in 1852, and afterward pursued his legal studies with Jos. Miller, 
junior, of the same place ; was admitted to the bar in 1855. and in October of that 
year settled in Saint Paul. Here he has attended to legal business exclusively 
and closely, and taken an honorable position at the bar in his judicial district. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 67 

As a lawyer, Mr. Otis is thoroughly read, painstaking and careful. His 
character, in all respects, is above reproach. As a court lawyer he stands in 
the front rank. His business pertains largely to real estate, railroad, and com- 
mercial law, and he is among the most successful attorneys in Saint Paul. 
With the legal fraternity his standing is cordial and first-class. 

Mr. Otis was a member of the first state legislature, held in the winter of 
1858-59; of the senate in 1866, and was mayor of the city in 1867. In that 
year he was appointed a member of the board of the State Reform School, 
and still holds that office. 

Politically, Mr. Otis has always been a democrat, but not active enough to 
interfere with his profession. Law has been his life pursuit, and he has made 
it a success. 

Religiously, his connection is with Christ Episcopal Church, Saint Paul. 

In Masonry, he has filled all the offices in the blue lodge; has been high 
priest of his chapter, eminent commander of his commandery, and state grand 
commander of Knights Templar for the State of Minnesota. 

The wife of Mr. Otis was Mary Virginia, eldest daughter of the late Hon. 
Charles E. Mix, who for twenty-five years held the office of chief clerk of the 
Indian Bureau, at Washington, District of Columbia, and was afterward commis- 
sioner of Indian affairs. They were married on the 28th of .September, 1858, 
and have five children. 



CHARLES H. OAKES, 

SAINT PAUL. 

AMONG the very few persons now living, who traversed the wilds of what 
>- is now Wisconsin and Minnesota fifty years ago, is Charles Henry Oakes, 
a pioneer Indian trader and fur dealer, an account of whose adventures and 
hardships would fill a volume. He is a clear-headed, sprightly old gentleman, 
very cordial and communicative, and the statements contained in this brief 
memoir may be regarded as strictly reliable. He was the son of a Vermont 
merchant and manufacturer, David Oakes, at one time sheriff of Windham 
county, and for many years a judge of Saint Clair county, Michigan, and was 
born in the town of Rockingham, Windham count)', on the 17th of July, 1803. 



68 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

His moilicr's name, before her marriage, was Sarah Marsh. His paternal great- 
grandfather came over from England long before the revolution. 

Charles received only a common-school education ; at twelve years of age 
went into a store in his native town, and clerked until eighteen ; in June, 
182 I, came as far west as Chicago, and remained there from Jul)- to December 
of that year, he being a clerk for a sutU-r. He was in Chicago whi-n General 
Lewis Cass matle a treaty with the Pottawatomie Imlians for their lands in 
northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. At that time all the white inhab- 
itants there; were two traders, Mr. Kinzie and Mr. Beaubien, and part of a com- 
pany of soldiers in old Fort Dearborn. In the spring of 1822, after visiting 
Detroit, Mr. Oakes went to Sault Ste Marie with troops whose mission there 
was to build I'Ort Brady. There he was in the mercantile business two years; 
then engaged voyageurs and commenced trading with the Indians, spend- 
ing his first winter in that calling in the Lake Superior country, on the Yellow 
river, Wisconsin. After two or three years' operations alone he connected him- 
self with the American Fur Company, and continued in this business steadily 
until 1834, spending his time in Wisconsin and Minnesota, that is, what is now 
these two states, the greater portion of his time in the latter state. Previous to 
1835 all goods for the Indian trade were transj)orted trom Mackinac in what 
were called Mackinac boats, usually from seven to nine voyageurs constituting 
a crew, to the head of Lake Superior, where the goods were transferred to 
birch-bark canoes, and transported in this waj' all through the interior to the 
several trading posts. Whenever there were portages to be made, the goods 
and other baggage were carried by the men upon their backs with a portage 
collar, made for the purpose, of strong leather, the whole weight resting upon 
the head. Men have been known to carry si.x or seven hundred pounds at a 
time in this way, but the usual load for each man was one hundred and htty 
to two hundred pounds. 

Now and then Mr. Oakes experienced very severe hardships and perils from 
cold and hunger. The winter of 1825-26 he passed on the shore ot Leech 
Lake, now in Cass count)-, northern Minnesota, and one day in March, after 
having been out trading with voyageurs and negotiating for some provisions, 
he started for his trading post just at sunset with his snow-shoes on. He 
soon struck the lake, which he had to cross ; the weather grew colder and his 
moccasins began to freeze to his snow-shoes when in the middle of the lake. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 69 

He knew there was danger of his feet freezing, but he could not get the snow- 
shoes off Pushing on as rapidly as his strength would permit, he began to 
feel sleepy and was tempted to lie down, but knowing that death was certain 
if he did so, he continued to move on. Just as he reached the shore of the 
lake, only a short distance from the post, he finally sank down. At that moment 
he became fully conscious of the perils of his situation, rose and made one 
more effort to reach the house, and succeeded. He did not, however, dare to 
go near a fire, for both feet were frozen solid to the ankles. Calling for help, 
from within doors, it soon came ; he went to a store-room where there was 
no fire, had the men cut his snow-shoes and moccasins off, ran a pen-knife 
into his feet in several places, without feeling it, in order to let out the bad 
blood when they should thaw ; put both feet into alcohol, and kept them there 
until the frost was entirely out, they bleeding freely meanwhile. They felt a 
little tender that night as he drew his socks on, and, strange to say, that was 
the end of his sufferings. Had he thawed his feet out by a fire, they would 
have had to be taken off, and there was no surgeon within four or five hundred 
miles ! Death, in that case, would have ensued. 

At another time, when all his men were absent, about a dozen Indians, 
with their faces blackened with charcoal, came into his cabin, said they under- 
stood he had "firewater," and they wanted some. He handed them tobacco, 
which they threw on the fioor, and afterward one of them gave it a violent 
kick. Their principal speaker told him they did not come ior that, they wanted 
the "firewater" or his life. He then told them that he had, by permission ot 
the United States government, five kegs for the use of his men and to procure 
his winter supply of provisions; that when he came to that section the Indians 
had eone to their huntinsj-srounds ; that he buried the keos in the ground; 
that it should there remain until spring or until the Indians and voyageurs 
returned ; that they might take his life, but that would do them no good, as 
no one but himself knew where the "firewater" was concealed. He told them 
he had promised the Indians, who were hunting, that they should have some 
of it on their return if they brought him all their furs ; that he could not and 
would not break his word with them ; and that if the Indians then present 
would go peaceably about their business, they should have some too when 
the proper time came. By thus talking to them they became satisfied, smoked 
the tobacco and went away quietly. Mr. Oakes faithfully kept his promise 



■JO THE UN/TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

made to them, as he ahvays did with the red men, and rarely had any difficulty 
in getting along with them. 

Usually Mr. Oakes tared well as it regarded provisions, having tea and 
coffee, tlour, pork and wild game, but during part ot the winter of 1827-28 he 
fared rather hard, getting out of everything except deers' hides ! These, for 
awhile, he boiled very tender, cut them into little strips three or four inches 
square, and pickU;tl them in vinegar. When the vinegar and butter gave out 
he roasted the slices to a crisp, and they relished well while warm. In a short 
time, however, he replenished his larder with hsh, game and maple sugar, and 
again fared sumptuously. During this time ot extreme destitution, for the sake 
of a lilth- \ariety in diet, the voyageurs dug away the deep snow under the 
oak trees and picked, thawed and ate the acorns. Scores of anecdotes of 
adventures and perils experienced by Mr. Oakes could be given, had we space. 
His life, fully written out, would fill a volume. 

From 1834 to 1838 Mr. Oakes was in Michigan, speculating on Grand river, 
near where the great city of Grand Rapids now stands. During that time he 
had loaned parties in Chicago five thousand dollars, and they, failing to pay, 
offered him "red dog" money or a block on Clark street, but the mud was so 
deep and the whole city so unpromising, that he said he would not give five 
thousand cents tor all Chicago. He chose the "red dot: " monev. In the latter 
year just mentioned ( 1838) he resumed his connection with the Pur Company, 
continuing it until 1850, when he located permanently in .Saint Paul. 

In 1853 Mr. Oakes, in company with his brother-in-law, Charles \V. \V. Borup, 
opened a bank here, under the firm name of Horup and Oakes, continuing busi- 
ness in the same name until 1866, although Mr. Borup died in 1859. .Since clos- 
ing up his banking business Mr. Oakes has lived a retired and (juiet lite, having 
a competency and contentedness of mind, with sense enough to know how to 
enjo)' it, he having traveled in Europe with his tamil)-, and stored his mind with 
useful knowledge. 

Mr. Oakes has never been much of a politician, and has never sought office 
of any kind. When General Sibley was in the gubernatorial chair he appointed 
Mr. Oakes colonel on his staff, and that was the cmX of his military career and 
preferments. 

He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and a man of very |iure 
character, generous to a fault, and in whom the needy never lack a friend. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. ;i 

The wife of Mr. Oakes was Miss Julia Beaulieii, of Sault Ste Marie ; married 
on the 29th of July, 1S31. She has had five children, only one of them, Julia 
Jane, the widow of the late General Isaac Van Etten, now living. One of her 
sons, George Henry, was in the civil war, connected with the sutler department, 
and died of disease there contracted, two years after leaving the service. The 
other son, Charles William, died at the age of twenty-three years. 

By a previous wife, Mr. Oakes had four children, only two of them, both daugh- 
ters, now living. Sophia is the wife of Hon. Jeremiah Russell, of Sauk Rapids, 
Minnesota, and Eliza is the wife of Colonel George W. Sweet, of Bismarck, Da- 
kota Territory. Lieutenant David O. Oakes, a deceased son, was killed while 
skirmishing at Farmington, just before the battle of Shiloh. He left a wife and 
three children. The other child died in infancy. 

Although Mr. Oakes spent much of his early and middle life out-of-doors, 
traversing the wilderness from port to port, he is well preserved, weighs two hun- 
dred and five pounds, is five feet eleven inches tall, and stands perfectly erect. 
He has the vigor and elasticity of ordinary men at fifty. 



HON. DORILUS MORRISON, 

MTNNEA PQLIS. 

AMONG the many self-made men of Minnesota, none are more deserving of 
^ the appellation than the subject of this sketch. Thrown early upon his 
own unaided resources for support, he began without hesitation at the bottom 
of the ladder, and worked his way steadily toward the top ; and, through the 
exercise of industry, sagacity and business enterprise, he can to-day look down 
the ladder up which he climbed, with the quiet satisfaction of knowing that his 
life has been an eminent success. 

Dorilus Morrison is of Scotch ancestry, and a native of Livermore, Oxford 
county, Maine. The record of his birth bearing date December 26, 1816. His 
parents were Samuel Morrison, a wheelwright by trade, and Betsey, his wife, nk 
Benjamin. Dorilus received a 'common-school education, and spent about three 
months at Kent's Hill Acadeni)-, town of Redfield, and afterward taught school 
in the country and " boarded round." He next, while yet in his eighteenth year, 
engaged with one William H. Britan, a merchant, farmer and general trader, to 



72 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

work for seven dollars a month and hoard ; at this rate he worked one year, 
when his wages were raised to ten dollars, for which he worked the second 
year; on demanding an increase to twelve dollars a month for the third year, 
and being refused, he turned his attention elsewhere. Three months afterward 
his old employer offered him twenty-five dollars per month if he would return ; 
he accepted the offer, and at the end of one year became a partner in the busi- 
ness ; continued as such for live years, enjoying good success. Then removed 
to Bangor, 1842, with about four thousand dollars, where he entered into mer- 
chandising and lumbering, which business he pursued prosperously until the 
spring of 1853, when, having saved about twenty thousand dollars, and teeling 
possessed of cpiite a fortune, he joined the tide of emigration, then pouring 
toward the west, and started lor Minnesota, which he reached ere the spring 
had wholl)' gone. He landed at Stillwater first, where he made the chance 
acquaintance of a young lawyer named McMillan, who at that time was almost 
unknown, but who is at present in the United States senate from Minnesota. 
(The moral is, Cjo West.) 

Mr. Morrison pushed on and settled at Minneapolis, where he invested in 
real estate, chietly pine lands. He is largely interested in manufacturing lumber 
from his pine lands, of which he owns nearl)' one hundred thousand acres; from 
1855 to 1868, at which time the lumber business was turned over to his sons, 
he manufactured from ten to twent\' million feet of lumber yearly. In 1856 he, 
with others, jnuxhased the land and water-power, and formed what is now 
known as the Minneapolis Mill Company, — he being one of the principal pro- 
jectors of the dam and canal, the building of which has made Minneapolis what 
she is, and justlv entitles her to the name of the city of mills and manufactories. 
At the close of 1879 there will be in operation about three hundred run of 
stone, besides numerous other mills and factories, which produce nearly all con- 
ceivable manufactured articles, all of which are operated by this immense and 
inexhaustible water-power; yet competent judges estimate that only ten per 
cent of the power will be utilized. The Minneapolis Mill Company, which is 
composed of Mr. Morrison, ex-Governor C. C. Washburn, of Wisconsin, and 
W. D. Washburn, of Minneapolis, owns all of this water-power upon the west 
side of the river, the large elevator that bears their name, the North .Star 
Woolen Mill ; and besides their great milling interests, Mr. Morrison is com- 
pleting a fourteen-run tlouring mill. Mr. Morrison, in addition to his many 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 73 

Other enterprises, built and invested one hundred thousand dollars in a cotton 
mill, of which he is sole owner; was also engaged with others in building the 
Northern Pacific railway, from 1869 to 1873, and had exclusive control of the 
construction of the last two hundred miles. He is president of the Minneapolis 
Harvester Company, and has about seventy-five thousand dollars invested in 
the agricultural works ; their various implements are enjoying a deserved popu- 
larity, which demands a production during this season of three thousand ma- 
chines ; he is also president of the Minneapolis gas company. 

In 1867 Mr. Morrison became the first mayor of Minneapolis, an office to 
which he has been twice elected since; in 1863 was elected senator to represent 
Hennepin county in the state legislature, and was re-elected for the following 
term ; served on various committees, taking an acti\e part in all legislative 
affairs, and rendering faithful and satisfactory services to his constituents. As a 
member of the board of education he has been prominent, active and energetic 
for many years ; being much interested in all matters pertaining to the welfare 
of schools, he aids the cause and advancement of education to the best of his 
ability. 

Politically, Mr. Morrison was originally a whig, while that party was in ex- 
istence, and since its dissolution has been a conscientious member of the repub- 
lican party ; and, while not being a partisan to any great extent, he still believes 
in atlhering strictly and firmly to the principles of old' republicanism, and with 
many others — and the number is increasing — he regrets that the Hon. James 
G. Blaine was not nominated at the Cincinnati convention, honestly believing 
that such a result would have been for the best interests of the country. 

Religiously, he is a Universalist, and for thirty years has been a consistent 
member of that denomination ; the societ}' possesses one of the finest churches 
in this city, and, socially and financially, is one of the strongest associations in 
the northwest. 

In May, 1840, Mr. Morrison was united in wedlock, in his native town, to 
Miss Harriet Putnam Whitmore, a descendant of General Israel Putnam, of 
revolutionary fame, and only daughter of Joel Whitmore, of Harrison, Maine. 
They have children living as follows : Clinton, born on the 5th of January. 1842, 
and married to Miss Julia K. Washburn, relative of the noted political famil)- 
of that name, of Cambridge, Ma.ssachusetts, on the 21st of February, 1873; 
George Henry, born on the 27th of November, 1844, and married to Miss Ella 



74 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Bicknell, of Hnston, Massachusetts, on the ist of October, i86S; Grace E.. born 
on the 2.Sth of March. 1848; now the wife of Dr. II. II. Kimball, a prominent 
physician of this city, to whom she was wedded on the 28th of March, 1870. 
The two sons are largely engaged in hmibering in Minneapolis, under the firm 
name of Morrison Brothers, and bid fair to follow in the successful path of their 
worthy progenitor. 



JOHN H. MURPHY, M.D., 

SA/.YT PAUL. 

JOHN HENRY MURPHY, the oldest medical practitioner in Minnesota, is 
a native of New Brunswick, New Jersey, a son ot |ames Murphy, shipbuilder, 
and .Sarah Allen, and dates his birth the 22d of January, 1S26. His father came 
from Ireland when about fourteen years old ; located in New Jersey, and was an 
officer in the second war with Englantl. The Aliens were an early New Jersey 
family. James Murphy moved to Ouincy, Illinois, in 18,34, where lohn farmed 
until al)Out eighteen, finishing his literary studies in the high school of Ouincy. 
He read medicine with Dr. Abram Hull, of Lewiston, Fulton county, Illinois; 
attended lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and graduated in 1850. The 
year previous he hail located at Saint Anthony, Minnesota, and commenced 
practice, and made that place, now a part of the city of Minneapolis, his home 
until near the close of the civil war. 

In the summer of 1861, when Dr. Stewart, surgeon of the ist Minnesota In- 
fantry, was captured at Bull Run, Dr. Murphy took his place and served in that 
capacity for six months. He then became surgeon of the 4th Infantry, which was 
connected with the seventeenth army corps. General McPherson commander ; 
served as division surgeon most of the lime; had a sunstroke in the summer of 
1864 and was obliged to return to the north; became surgeon of the 8th Minne- 
sota Infantry, operating against the Indians; accompanied it to the western plains 
and served until the close of the war. 

During the latter part of this period his family was living at Saint Paul, which 
has been his home since 1864. Though doingNi^eneral practice, he makes sur- 
gery a specialty, and does an extensive and lucrativeSiitsiness. His rides extend 
over a large territory, and his skill and services are thoroughly appreciated among 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 75 

his wide circle of acquaintances. He is a man ot a genial and kindly disposition, 
whose very presence is a comfort to the sick. 

Dr. Murphy has held several civil offices, and could have had more if he would 
have accepted them. He was a member of the territorial legislature in 1S52, and 
of the state constitutional convention in 1857. He is president of the city school 
board — an earnest worker for the cause of education, and has held other civil 
offices in the municipality of Saint Paul. 

Dr. Murphy has been surgeon-general of the state for the last eight or nine 
years, and is president of the pension bureau. 

The Doctor is a member of the American Medical Association, and of the 
State Medical Society, and was the first delegate from the territory of Minnesota 
to the former, and has been vice-president of the latter. His standing in the 
medical iraternity is highl)" honorable. 

In politics, he was first a whig; since 1856 has been a republican ; is a Knight 
Templar in Freemasonry, and an Odd-Fellow, and is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. His integrity and the purity of his life, we believe, have never 
been questioned. 

His wife was Miss Mary A. Hoyt, of Fulton county, Illinois; married on the 
28th of June, 1848. They have had seven children, and lost two of them. Emma 
is the wife of Davis Blaisdell, of California. The others are single. 



GEORGE L. BECKER, 

SAINT PAUL. 

THE following sketch of George Loomis Becker is from the graceful pen 
of Mr. J. Fletcher Williams, secretary of the Minnesota Historical Society. 
It was written three or four years ago, and we have changed a few words in 
order to make it conform to the present date. 

Mr. Becker was born on the 4th of Februar)', 1829, in the town of Locke, 
Cayuga county, New York. His father, Hiram Becker, a native of Schoharie 
county. New York, was a descendant of the early Dutch settlers of the Mohawk 
valley, who came to America long prior to the revolutionar)' war. His mother's 
name was Sophia Millard, a native ot Vermont. 

Mr. Becker obtained his early schooling in a district school in his native 



j6 THE UN/TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

town, and afterward more tulK' at tlie academy at Moravia, in tlie same county. 
Subsequent!)- lie attended the preparatory department of Western Reserve 
College, at Hudson, Ohio. His parents havinj^-, in the meantime, remo\ed to 
Auburn, New York, he returned home and completed his preparatory course 
at the Auburn Academy, then in charge of William Hopkins. 

In 1841 Mr. Becker's father removed to Ann .Arbor, Michigan, and he en- 
tered the freshman class of the .State University in 1842, and graduated in 
1846, in the Seconal class graduating from that university, indisputably one of 
the best collecjes of America. 

Immediately after graduating he studied law with George Sedgwick, of Ann 
.Arbor, and remained with him until October, 1849, ^vlien he emigrated to Saint 
Paul, arri\ing here on the 29th of that month. He at once commenced the 
practice of law, and soon alter formed a copartnership with Fulmund Rice and 
Ellis G. Whitall, under the firm name of Rice, Whitall ami Becker. About a 
year afterward Mr. Whitall withdrew, and William Hollinshead, one of the best 
lawyers who ever lived in the state, joined the firm, which then became Rice, 
Hollinshead and Becker, one of the most successful and widely known law firms 
in the territorial days of Minnesota, continuing to transact a large and important 
business until its dissolution in i8;6. Mr. Rice retired durine that x'ear, and 
Messrs. Becker and Hollinshead continued the business for another year, when 
Mr. Becker withdrew, and soon after ceased the active practice of law. 

In 1855 Mr. Becker was married at Keeseville, New York, to Miss Susannah 
M. Ismond, a lady of rare accomplishments and beauty, and well fitted to pre- 
side over the comfortable home where so many visitors have received its gen- 
erous hospitalities, dispensed with a grace and kindness that render all " at 
home." Pour promising boys complete Mr. Becker's household. 

During the last sixteen years Mr Becker has been actively engaged in the 
important work of forwarding the railroad interests of the state. In 1862 he 
was chosen huid commissioner of the Saint Paul and Pacific railroad. Upon 
the organization of the first division of that road, on the 6th of February, 
1864, he was elected president, which position lie has held ever since. Untler 
his able management, and largely by his efforts and influence, tour hundred 
miles of road have been constructed, connecting the navigable waters of the 
Mississippi with those of the Red River of the North. Foreign capital has 
been enlisted to the extent of millions, thus proving a source of wealth to 



THE UN r TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. -j-j 

our state, opening a vast region liitherto a wilderness, now hlled witli pros- 
perous towns and fertile, well improved farms. In the discharge of his duties, 
Mr. Becker has performed an immense amount of physical and mental labor, 
making frequent journeys east and to Europe, besid-es carrying on his large 
office business at home, and filling responsible public offices at the same time. 
Fortunately he possesses a robust physique, or he would have broken down 
under such a pressure. 

The high, and we may say, in candor, the iully deserved, popularity Mr. 
Becker has always enjoyed in this community, where he is best known, is well 
evinced in his repeated nomination and election to important offices. In 1854, 
at the first municipal election under our city charter, he was elected an alder- 
man, and in 1856 mayor of the city. In 1857 he was elected from Ramsey 
county one of the members of the constitutional convention, and soon after 
elected one of the three members ol congress to which it was supposed our 
state, when admitted, would be entitled. During the delay which attended its 
admission, it became certain that only two members could be received, and Mr. 
Becker at once resigned. 

In 1859 he was unanimously nominated, at a convention of his party, for 
governor, but the opposite side gained the day. 

In 1867 he was elected a member of the state senate from Ramsey county, 
and re-elected in 1869, serving four sessions. Such was the confidence reposed 
in him by both parties, that, at his last election, no nomination was made against 
him on the opposite ticket, and he was unanimously chosen. 

In 1872 Mr. Becker was again nominated for congress, but his party was not 
successful in the contest. 

Mr. Becker is one of the three original members ot the Presbyterian Church 
of Saint Paul, organized on the ist of January, 1850, and is still a member. 

He is also a member of the Old Settlers' Association, ot which he was 
president in 1873, and of the Minnesota Historical Society, of which he was 
president in 1874. 

Mr. Becker has aided all the benevolent, literary and educational institutions 
of our city with generous hands. 

The difficulty of speaking of a living person in suitable terms prevents us in 
a great measure from doing full justice to the character of the subject of this 
sketch, than whom perhaps no gentleman in Minnesota stands higher in every 



78 THE I'M TED STATES BIOGRAJ'JIJCAL DICTIONARY. 

respect, and more Inlly enjoys the* conlidence, esteem and lo\e of a host ot 
friends ; one who, in a word, is tlie true t\|)e of the uprij^ht man, the high-minded 
anil h()noral)le advocate, the laitlilul public officer, the generous and hospitable 
friend, ami the public-spirited citizen. 



HON. CHARLES E. VANDERBURGH, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

CHARLES EDWIN VANDERBURGH, judge of the fourth judicial dis- 
trict, son of Stephen and Maria (Calkins) Vanderburgh, was born at Clifton 
Park, Saratoga county. New York, on the 2d of December, 1829. His father's 
ancestors came from Amsterdam, Holland, and settled in Dutchess county, New 
York, more than a generation before the old French war. His grandfather (also 
named Stephen ), who was a soldier in the revolution, soon after the war removed 
to Saratoga county. New York, where his father was born, in 1800. In 1S36 his 
father removed from Saratoga county to Marcellus, Onondaga count)-, in the 
same state. 

Charles Edwin worked on his lather's tarm, attendinof the district school dur- 
ing the winters, until he was seventeen years old, when he engaged in teaching 
school during the next two winters, meantime preparing for college, pursuing his 
studies by himself at home, and a portion of the time, from 1846 to 1849, at 
Courtland Academy, Homer, New York. In the fall of 1849 he entered the 
sophomore class of Yale College, and graduated in 1852. In the following year 
Mr. Vanderburgh became principal of Oxford Academy, at Oxford, New York. 
In 1853 he commenced the study of law in the same town, in the office of Henry 
R. Mygatt, Esq., one of the foremost lawyers in the state. Was admitted to the 
bar in January, 1855, remaining in Mr. Mygatt's office till the following autumn, 
when he came to Chicago and spent the winter. 

Mr. Vanderburgh came to Minnesota in April, 1856, in quest of a suitable 
location for starting business. He decided on Minnesota in preference to any 
other state he visited, and settled in Minneapolis to practice his profession. 
Shortly after coming here he formed a law partnership with Judge Cornell, and 
they did a large business, both in the United States land office and in the courts. 
This firm continued until the fall of 1859, when Mr. Vanderburgh was elected 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 79 

district judge, a position which he has retained to the present time. His district 
at that time extended north and northwest of Fort Snelling to the boimdar\- of 
the state, and out of which several districts have since been apportioned. When 
Judge Vanderburgh first came to Minneapohs he obtained a situation in the reg- 
ister of deeds' office, where he worked about three weeks, earning forty dollars, 
at the end of which time he entered into business with Mr. Cornell, as above 
stated. This was the first money earned by him in the state, and very acceptable 
under the circumstances he was then in. The records then made by him fre- 
quently serve to remind him of early struggles, and of the kindness and assistance 
of many of the early settlers of Minneapolis. 

The simple fact of Judge Vanderburgh being continued on the bench for more 
than eighteen years is a high compliment to his judicial qualifications, and ren- 
ders comment thereon superfluous. Prominent members of the bar speak in the 
highest terms of his ability and judgment, especially in cases in equity, and of his 
happy faculty of commanding such language in his decisions, and also in charges 
to a jury, as renders them clear, concise and easily understood. 

Judge Vanderburgh, in his political associations, is a republican, being elected 
as such, but he pays little attention to, and takes no active part in, politics. The 
Minnesota bench, as remarked in Judge Young's sketch, are happily free from all 
such proclivities. 

Judge Vanderburgh was first married at O.xford, New York, on the 2d of Sep- 
tember, 1857, to Julia M. Mygatt, daughter of William and Caroline Mygatt. She 
died on the 23d of April, 1863, leaving two children: William Henry, born on 
the 15th of July, 1858, and Julia M., born on the i6th of October, 1861. The lat- 
ter was accidentally drowned at Minneapolis, on the 12th of September, 1871, 
while the Judge was absent at court. William Henry is at present a member of 
the freshman class at Princeton College, New Jersey. On the 15th of April, 1873, 
Judge Vanderburgh was again married, to Miss Anna Culbert, daughter of the 
late John Culbert, of F"uIton county. New York. They have one child, Isabella 
Mclntyre, born on the 6th of August, 1874. 

The Judge has been a member of the Presbyterian church since 1862 ; is an 
elder in the church, and has been for many years a superintendent and teacher in 
the Sabbath-school, a work in which he is deeply interested. He has made it a 
cardinal principle never to miss an engagement. He has never been detained 
from his post of duty by personal ill-health, and scarcely ever by accident or storm. 



8o THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAI. DICTIONARY. 

He has had the privilege and responsibility of organizing courts in a number 
of new counties, and an opportunity of witnessing an extraordinary development 
and growth in population, wealth and intelligence in this state, and it is his testi- 
mony and belief that there is no part of our country where life and property are 
more secure, or the devotion of the people to law and order greater, than here. 



HON. CHARLES H. BERRY, 

WINONA. 

CHARLES HENRY BERRY, one of the first lawyers to locate in Winona, 
and the first attorney-general of the State of Minnesota, is a native of Wes- 
terly, Rhode Island, and was born on the 12th of September, 1823. His parents 
were Samuel F. and Lucy (Stanton) Berry,' both of Huguenot stock, their ances- 
tors leaving the old world during the last persecution of Protestants in France. 

Samuel F. Berry moved with his family to Steuben county, New York, in 1828, 
there settling on a farm, engaging to some extent, also, in the lumber business ; 
the son remaining at home until about sixteen years old. In 1839 he went to 
Maine, Broome county, New York, and attended an academy, Professor W. 
Gates, i)rincipal, until 1843. Subsequently he spent nearly the same period in 
a similar institution at Canandaigua. His attendance at these institutions was 
not without interruptions. He was wholly dependent upon himself for the means 
of support, and filled in the intervals of stud\- by teaching district or graded 
schools, and occasionally, when the water was at " rafting stage " in the Chemung 
and Suscjuehanna rivers, by trips down those streams to the lumber markets, on 
or near the Chesapeake bay. When his school was closed, or a rafting trip was 
ended, he resumed his studies with renewed strength, zest and determination. He 
received his diploma from the Canandaigua Academy in 1S46, having completed 
the full course of studies laid down; and at the same time he was awarded the 
annual prize of twenty dollars, provided by the founders of the institution, tor the 
best essay " On the Excellence of Republican Ciovernment, effectually securing 
Equal Liberty, founded on the Rights of Man." 

On leaving this school, Mr. Berry read law in Canandaigua, entering the 
office of Hon. E. G. Lapham, closing his studies with Hon. .\lvah Worden, and 
was admitted to the bar at Rochester, in October, 1848. 




a^^pyf'c^^ 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 83 

Mr. Berry opened an office at Corning, in the same state, and there practiced 
until early in 1855 ! '" May of that year settling in Winona. His law partner in 
Corning, Hon. C. N. Waterman, accompanied him to this place, and they were in 
company from May, i85i,to December, 1871, — a period of nearly twenty-one 
years. Mr. Berry is still in practice, and is the longest at the Winona county bar 
of any man now living there, he having engaged his office on the 17th of May, 
1855 ; three weeks afterward returned, took possession and opened business. 

When Minnesota became a state, in 1858, Mr. Berry was elected attorney- 
general and held the office two years ; he was state senator in 1874 and 1875, 
and has been a United States court commissioner since 1873, still holding that 
office. One of the oldest residents of Winona, and heartily identified with edu- 
cational and other interests, Mr. Berry has been, and still is, one of its most 
public-spirited and useful citizens. He was the president of the city school board 
for eight years, is now a director in that board, and takes great interest in the 
intellectual progress of the place. He was instrumental in securing the location 
of one of the state normal schools at Winona. The graded schools have lono- 
been regarded as among the best in Minnesota, and the literary status of the city 
is owing, in large measure, to the enterprise in this direction of a few such men 
as Mr. Berr)^ 

He has always been a democrat, and was a member of the national demo- 
cratic conventions in 1864 and 1872. As an explanation of his advocacy of the 
nomination of Horace Greeley, in the latter year, it is enough to say that Mr. 
Berry then believed, and still believes, that that peerless journalist understood 
better than most of his contemporaries the problem of the war of secession, and 
was honest enough, and sufficiently bold, to declare his convictions. Hence he 
thought Mr. Greeley peculiarly qualified for the office of President, in the unset- 
tled state of the country incident to the war. 

In 1848, when the famous proposition of David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, 
known as the " Wilmot Proviso," after its brief but stormy life in congress, was 
before the people, and while the exciting presidential election of that year was 
pending, Mr. Berry was found earnestly advocating the cause of " Martin Van 
Buren." He was enthusiastic in support of what he deemed natural justice, 
and of those anti-slavery principles which were then taking so deep a hold on 
the public mind and heart. This continued until the conflicting elements in the 
democratic party, in New York, came in collision, and to a final rupture, at the 



84 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

State convention held at Syracuse in 1853. Though an anti-slavery man, Mr. 
Berry chose the democratic party, because, if we fully understand him, he thought 
it the only possible national party ; and when the convention to nominate state 
officers, which had assembled in " Brintnell Hall," Syracuse, was taken lorcible 
possession of Ijy wliat was called the "Soft" or "Barn-Burner" wing, he, as a 
member of that convention, went over to the "Adamantines," and took part in 
that wing, which met at the " Globe Hotel." He took his place in that party, as 
many thousands did at that time, from like motives, under the lead of Hon. 
Daniel S. Dickinson. The wing of the party to which he adhered proved to be 
in accord with the national democratic party. Mr. Berry has adhered to it in 
all its fortunes. It should be added, however, that latterly, except in a few 
instances, he has not taken an active part in politics. 

He is one of the charter members of Winona Lodge, of F..A..M., No. 18. 
He became a Freemason in 1852, in the Montour Lodge, of the State of New 
York, and is still a member of that order. He attends the Episcopal church 
with his family. 

His wife was Miss Frances E., daughter of Philo P. and Eliza Hubbcll, of 
Corning, Steuben county, New York; their union occurring on the 14th of 
November, 1850. They have one child, Kate Louise, wife of Charles A. Morey, 
principal of the First State Normal School, located at W'inona. 

Mr. Berry is interested in the Merchants' National Bank, of Winona, and has 
been a director of the same since its organization. Financially, as in other 
respects, he has made his profession a success. 



HON. CHAUNCEY N. WATERMAN, 

U'/NONA. 

CHAUNCEY N. WATERMAN, who died in Winona on the i8th of Feb- 
ruary, 1873, and while on the bench in the third judicial district, was a 
native of New York, his birth dating at Rome in 1823. His early years were spent 
in a farm-house, and his intellectual and moral, as well as physical, constitution 
was early and strongly developed. He early exhibited a thirst for knowledge, in 
which he was encouraged at home, especially by his mother and sisters ; prepared 
for college at Rome; entered Hamilton College, and graduated in 1847, with the 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 85 

highest honors of his class. Having decided to become a lawyer, and wishing 
to avail himself of the best helps in the profession, he entered the law school at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and after graduating, and teaching a short time in 
Cincinnati, he commenced practice at Corning, New York, there forming with 
Hon. C. H. Berry, now of Winona, a partnership, which lasted more than twenty 
years. He came to Winona in May, 1855, ^.nd was in the practice of his profes- 
sion until he went on the bench, on the ist of January, 1872, thirteen months 
before his demise, which was caused by pneumonia. He left a wife, who followed 
him the next year, and four children, the youngest dying before the mother. The 
other three are living; the eldest, Henry E., being now a cadet at West Point. 
At a meeting of the Winona county bar, held soon after the death of Judge 
Waterman, his partner for many years, Hon. C. H. Berry, made a lengthy and 
feeling address in regard to his deceased friend, thus speaking of the esteem in 
which the Judge was held : 

He had more objects to love than fall to the common lot of men, and hence he had more to re- 
gret at his parting. Besides the circle of kindred, friends, acquaintances, his profession, the duties of his 
office, the duties of every-day life, science, literature to him in all its rich and varied beauties, even 
the common-places of the world at large, were, each and all, to him objects of real love. But however 
keen the pang of separation, no word of repining escaped his lips. It was to him simply a duty from 
which he might not be excused. 

Mr. Berry spoke as follows of some of the traits of the Judge's character: 

He loved truth in the abstract, — for its own sake, or simply because it is truth. He believed that 
reason is the natural guide to it; that law is the way over which reason leads to her object, and hence 
that law and reason are one, each the counterpart and synonym of the other. Believing that law is 
the surest guide to the right in adjusting the conflicting interests of men, he embraced it with his 
whole heart, to the e.Kclusion of other devices by which the end is sometimes sought to be attained. 
Force, fraud, covert deception, or indirection, found no toleration in his mind. Recognizing the 
intricacies in which the fallibility of human nature, or evil design, necessarily involve the affairs of 
men, he gave great space to the law of equity, and no man was more keenly alive to the merits of an 
equitable principle. 

In the same speech Mr. Berry thus spoke of Judge Waterman's traits of char- 
acter as a jurist, and of his literary as well as legal attainments : 

On his election to the bench his convictions in this regard necessarily came forward for practical 
recognition. The critical observer must have remarked, in his charges to juries, critical analyses of 
the respective relations of the bench, bar, jury, suitors and witnesses; in liis informal e.xpositions 
of law in civil and criminal cases, more frequently in the latter, the germs of a liberal and humane 
administration ot the laws, the tendency of which cannot be mistaken. Could it have matured and 
developed into results, the impress upon our judiciary would have been as deep and lasting as its 
causes were quiet and unobtrusive. I believe that while novelties would have received no unde- 
served favor, the administration of justice would, in some degree, at least, have been improved. His 
conceded ability would have secured that deference which only positive error could forfeit, and that 



86 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

error he was too good a lawyer to commit. But unfortunately our light from that source is extin- 
guished, and we turn to others for the favor we had a right to expect from him. 

No estimate, however careful or extended, will do iiim justice, that fails to take in the broad field 
of general and specific learning of which he had made himself the master. I use the expression that 
"he had made himself the master" advisedly, for no one with greater truth, not even the old warrior 
in whose mouth we find the expression, could have said so truthfully, " by my head and shoulders 
I have gotten all this." 

There is little ancient literature, worth reading, which he had not read ; and of the great writers 
of modern time, there are few, the merits and demerits of whom he had not scanned with a critical 
eye. If there be subjects too abstruse, or too high for him to reach, or too minute or attenuated for 
him to comprehend, they escape the observation of less gifted minds. And yet the greater part of 
this was pastime, — tlie recreations and amusements of a mind that glided over and among created 
things at ease where other minds would flag, like those birds which are said to be ever upon the wing. 

But the albatross, however lofty and long sustained its flight may be, must finally come to its rest. 
It must fold its broad wings, and mingle its bones with the common dust. So, his labors are brought 
to a close. The vacant chair, the funereal drapery, declare the end. But his life, by the measure 
adopted by himself, has been a success, and so surely as the works and influences of the good live 
after them, so surely will that life be a profit and consolation to those he has left behind him. 



HON. JAMES SMITH, JR., 

SAINT PAUL. 

THE family from which the subject of this sketch descended, settled in 
Rockingham county, Virginia, some time during the first half of the eigh- 
teenth century, the great-grandfather of James tlying there. From Virginia, mem- 
bers of the family spread into Ohio and other central western states, and other 
southern statc;s. James Smith, junior, was born in Moiuit W-rnon, Kno.x county, 
Ohio, on the 29th of October, 181 5. James Smith, senior, a physician by pro- 
fession, was for twenty-five years clerk of the court of common pleas and supreme 
court for Knox coimty. The maiden name of his wife was Rebecca Emmett. 

In his youth James was greatly afflicted with a weakness of the eyes, caused 
by sickness, yet by great perseverance he succeeded in obtaining a good prac- 
tical education in common schools and by private study. He read law three years 
with J. T. Brazee, in Lancaster, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1839. 
For a few years he was the law partner of Colonel J. W. Vance, who was killed 
during the civil war, while with General Banks on the Red Ri\er expedition. 

In 1856 -Mr. Smith left Mount Vernon, where he had been in stead)' and 
successful practice for seventeen years, and camt! to Saint Paul, which has since 
been his home. At an early day here, he was in i)arlnership with Judge La- 





^ 



7<?<-^,.^l^ 



^r^SJJr^iiiSr-jUStrruj-SrjrF: 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 87 

fayette Emmett; a little later with Hon. John ^I. Oilman, and now he is of the 
firm of Smith and Egan, his partner being James J. Egan. For the last eleven 
or twelve years he has been the attorney for the Lake Superior and Mississippi 
Railroad Company, a road which connects Saint Paul with Duluth, and has 
also a branch running to Stillwater. 

Mr. Smith was a member of the state senate in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1876 and 
1877, and was most of the time chairman of the railroad committee, and all 
the time on the judiciary committee. His services in the legislature have been 
highly valuable. The last time he was chosen without opposition, an evidence 
of his great usefulness as a legislator and the thorough appreciation of his worth 
by his constituents. He was originally a whig, then a republican, and is now 
independent, heartily supporting the policy of President Hayes. 

On the iSth of January, 1848, Mr. Smith was joined in wedlock with Miss 
Elizabeth Morton, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, and they have had five children, 
four of them yet living, three daughters and one son. James Morton is a clerk 
in his father's office. 

Mr. Smith is a man of irreproachable character; the services which he has 
rendered to the state in the upper branch of the legislature make him widely 
known, and all over the commonwealth he hds an honorable standing. 



HON. JESSE AMES, 

NORTHFIELD. 

JESSE AMES, the oldest sea captain, probably, in Minnesota, with an expe- 
rience of more than forty years in seafaring life, was born at Vinalhaven, once 
in Hancock, now in Knox county, Maine, on the 4th of February, 1808. His 
parents were John and Hannah Perry Ames, both of remote English descent. 
The Ameses first settled in Massachusetts, and members of this immediate 
branch went from Marshfield, or that vicinity, to Maine about 1760. 

John Perry, the maternal grandfather of our subject, was in the revolutionary 
army, and was captured by the British and kept awhile on a prison ship. At 
length he made his escape, reached Boston by means of a canoe, obtained a pri- 
vateer's license, and did much mischief to British commerce, to say nothing of 
"red-coat" life. The British government had a standing offer of several thou- 



88 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

sand pounds for his recapture and delivery into the hands of the proper authori- 
ties. 

The subject of this biographical notice, the son of a farmer, early had a 
thirst, hguratively speaking, for salt water; had some experience of life on the 
ocean before he was fourteen years old, and at sixteen, with only the mental dis- 
cipline of an ordinary common school, he went before the mast. 

At t\vcnl\-three years of age he had command of a schooner, a merchant 
craft, and for twenty-nine or thirty years was captain ot different ships, brigs, 
bartjues or schooners, all of them in mercantile trade. He made between twenty 
and ihirt)- \oyages to Europe ; repeatedly visited both sides of the South Ameri- 
can coast; went round the world twice, his wife accompanying him l)oth times, 
and has, it is likely, seen as much ot the world as any man whose home is now 
in the " North Star State." 

Durino- all the time he was in command of a sailing craft he lost onlv one 
man, who fell from aloft off Cape of Good Hope, and one brig, lost, when he was 
quite young, on the Bermudas. 

In 1861 Captain Ames made his last voyage, coming from New Zealand to 
London, there selling his ship, the Lizzie Spaulding, and returning home. lla\- 
ing a son in Minnesota, he visited the state, and concluded to here cast anchor 
for life. After farming two or three seasons in Rice county, he located in the 
beautiful town, now full-blown city, of Northfield. 

In December, 1864, Mr. Ames and his sons purchased the flouring mills at 
this place, and the " Northfield" brant! of tlour, made by Jesse Ames and Sons, 
and now by Jesse Ames' Sons, has long been well known and in high repute 
in the eastern and European markets. 

In 1 86 1, to please his republican constituents, Mr. Ames servetl them in the 
legislature, but the business was distastelul to him \\\\C[ he made one term suffice. 

He is a mcinl)cr of the Masonic fraternity. 

On the 27th of October, 1832, Miss Martha Tolman, daughter of a sea cap- 
tain, Thomas Tolman, of Rockland, Maine, became the wife of Captain Ames, 
and they have two sons. John T. Ames, the elder, has a family, and is one of 
the leading business men of Northfield. The other son, Adelbert Ames, gradu- 
ated at West Point in 1861 ; went directly into the army; was wounded in the 
thigh at the first battle of Bull Run ; served through the war, and was promoted 
through every grade from second lieutenant to brigadier-general, and breveted 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 89 

major-general. Since the close of the war he has been a United States senator 
from Mississippi, and governor of that state. The mother of the Gracchi was 
proml ot her sons, and so may well be Mrs. Ames. 



GEORGE DWIGHT SNOW, 

LE SUEUR. 

PROBABLY no man who has ever lived in Le Sueur was better known or 
more generally esteemed than George Dwight Snow, the first banker in Le 
Sueur county. He was a native of Chesterfield, New Hampshire, a son of Will- 
iam R. and Marcia (F"arr) Snow, and was born on the 21st of September, 1830. 
In 1844 the family moved to Hoosac, New York, where the son received an 
academic education, and was a clerk a few years in a store. 

In 1857 he came to Minnesota ; spent one season at Saint Anthony, now East 
Minneapolis ; early in the spring of 1858 located in Waterville, Le Sueur county, 
there engaging in the milling business, and in 1861, on being elected register of 
deeds, settled in Le Sueur. He held office for six years, and thoroughly estab- 
lished his reputation for efficiency and integrity. 

In 1869 Mr. Snow opened the Bank of Le Sueur ; shortly afterward connected 
with him Hon. Michael Doran, and remained in the banking business until his 
death, which occurred on the 7th of September, 1873. Two days afterward, when 
he was buried, under the direction of the Masonic order, the district court beino- 
in session, adjourned, and the several places of business were draped in mourn- 
ing and closed from nine o'clock in the morning till three o'clock in the afternoon. 
The loss was generally and deeply felt, the whole town being smitten with orief. 
The Le Sueur " Sentinel," on the iith of September, 1873, in speaking of Mr. 
Snow's demise, states that among all his very wide circle of acquaintance, he had 
not, probably, a single enemy ; " neither was he an enemy of any member of the 
human family. His equable disposition kept him in that happy frame of mind 
that could not cherish malice or feeling of resentment. As a citizen of Le Sueur, 
with his infiuence and ample fortune, capable of doing much for the place, though 
highly esteemed, his usefulness could not be overrated. He always took an active 
part in all good works for the town ; . . . indeed, no notable enterprise of a public 
or j^ivate nature, for many years, was projected or carried forward without receiv- 
ing much of its impetus from his wise counsel or liberal hand." 



go THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

The year bbforc lie left New York for the west, on the 19th of I-"cl>ruary, 1S56, 
Mr. Snow was united in marriage with Miss Harriet C. Knifiin, ot Iloosac, New 
York, and of five children, the fruit of this union, four are living. Fannie T., the 
older daughter, is the wife of Arthur B. Moffatt, miller, of Le Sueur, and other 
three, Hattie K., William C. and Charles D., are living with their mother in Le 
Sueur. As may be inferred from what has already been written, Mr. Snow was 
an eminently successful business man, and left the family in independent circum- 
stances. They cherish his meinor}' with the utmost sacredness, and it will be 
long before the name of Mr. Snow is- ft)rgotten by the citizens generally of Le 
Sueur. 



OTIS AVER, M.D., 

LE sunrii. 

OTIS AYER, one ol the oUlest medical practitioners and surgeons in the 
Minnesota valley, is a son of John and Judith (McCutchen) Ayer, and 
was born in New Ilampton, Strafford, now Belknap county, New Hampshire, 
on the 19th of June, 1S17. He was reared on his father's farm until eighteen 
years of age; received a thorough academic education in his native town; read 
medicine with Dr. [olin A. Dana, of New Hampton ; pursued his medical 
studies in the medical department of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hamp- 
shire, and at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia; graduating trom the 
former in November, 1841, and from the latter in March, 1842. 

Dr. Ayer jjractictxl in his native? town alnnit eleven j'ears. In 1853 removed 
to New Lomlon, in the same state, and tliree years later settled in Le Sueur. 
The vallev of the Minnesota was then v(M-y sparsely settled, and had but tew 
physicians ; his rides were necessarih' (juite extensive, ami his practice has 
always been general. In the outset he took especial jjains to lit himself tor 
the practice of both medicine and surgery, and in both has an e.xalted standing. 
He has performed numerous capital operations in surgery. In every branch of 
the healing art his skill is unquestioned. He is surgeon for the Saint Paul 
and Sioux City Railroad Company. 

Dr. Ayer is a member of the Minnesota State Medical -Societ)', and was 
its llrst vice-president in 1875, •"'"-1 '^^ president in 1877. Prol)al>l\- no medical 
man in the state, outside of -Saint Paul, is more widely known or has more gen- 
erally the confidence and esteem of the profession. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 91 

While civil war was raging at the south Dr. Ayer was appointed surgeon, 
and from April to December, 1863, served in that capacity with the 2d Min- 
nesota Volunteer Infantry, resigning because of ill-health. From 1865 to 1875 
he was an examining surgeon for pensions, resigning at the end of ten years. 
He is gradually working out of practice, or trying to, but many of the older 
settlers in and near Le Sueur will call no other physician. 

Dr. Ayer has been a professor of religion for forty years, holding his church 
connection with the Baptists. He was for ten years a trustee and the treas- 
urer of the New Hampton Academic and Theological Institution, and left his 
native town in 1853 because of the removal of that school. 

On the 27th of January, 1845, Miss Narcissa V. Smith, a native of Shore- 
ham, Vermont, and a .sister of Rev. Eli B. Smith, D.D., many years principal 
of the New Hampton Institution, became the wife of Dr. Ayer. She died at 
Le Sueur, on the ist day of June, 1873, creating in female society a vacuum 
which has never been tilled. Mrs. Ayer was for many years connected as a 
teacher with the female department of the New Hampton Institution, was the 
principal of that department when it was removed to Fairfax, Vermont, and 
was a woman of rare accomplishments, alike of mind and heart. The writer 
of this sketch was associated with her as a teacher between two and three 
years, and has no hesitation in saj'ing that ladies of a more amiable disposi- 
tion, and purer and more winning moral qualities, are seldom found. 

" None knew her luit to love her, 
None named her but to praise." 



HON. JAMES B. ATKINSON, 

FOREST CITT. 

NO man in Meeker county, Minnesota, knows more about " roughing it " west 
of the " Big Woods" than James Benton Atkinson, who first represented 
this county in the legislature after Minnesota became a state. He is a native of 
the Dominion ot Canada, and was born near Kingston on the 13th of Novem- 
ber, 1822. His parents, John and Ann (Atty) Atkinson, were English, both be- 
ing from Yorkshire, near Doncaster. When James was about six months old 
the family moved to Pennsylvania, and the son, taking a fancy to the printing 



92 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



business, commenced learning the trade at Freeport. Armstrong county, finished 
it at Pittsburgh, and subsequently worked at it in Wheeling and Cincinnati ; in 
1844 commenced farming, thirty miles above Pittsburgh, in Armstrong county; 
three years later engaged in buying and slaughtering cattle, continuing that 
business for five years, meantime also carrying on a tannery. About 1853 Mr. 
Atkinson took a contract on the Alleghany Valley railroad, Pennsylvania, and 
still later, a contract on the Iron Mountain road, Missouri. 

Returning to Pennsylvania, he traded a short time at Freeport ; in the autumn 
of 1855, coming west again, he prospected in Iowa and Missouri, and in the 
spring of 1856 strayed northward into Minnesota. After halting a short time at 
Minneapolis he came out through the "Big Woods" to Forest City, Meeker 
county, the " city" then consisting of one dwelling-house, made of logs, and one 
general office. There he opened a store and hotel, and soon afterward bought 
some land. He merchandized and entertained strangers steadily until the Indian 
massacre commenced (on the 17th of August, 1862) in his county, only fourteen 
miles from Forest City. He raised a company of cavalry and participated awhile 
in the campaigns on the frontier in 1862 and 1863; in 1864, raised a company 
and went into the service as captain of company H, ist Minnesota Heavy Artil- 
lery, and was in the army at the south until the rebellion collapsed. 

Returning to Forest City, he resumetl the mercantile trade, cultivating, at the 
same time, more or less land, and latterl\- he has taken to larming altogether. 
He owns two or three thousand acres in Meeker and other counties in Minne- 
sota ; has between four and five hundred acres of it improved ; has also lands in 
Missouri, and owns an elevator and several other buildings in Litchfield, being in 
independent circumstances. 

When in the legislature, in the winter of 1857-58, he represented Meeker, 
Stearns and Benton counties, and the country at the north to the British Posses- 
sions, but not a very large constituency. 

He was county commissioner several years; was sheriff ot the county three 
years ; has been a justice of the peace for twenty years, and assessor for seven- 
teen years, being a man of great business dis])atch, as well as competency. 

Captain Atkinson was married on the 20th of March, 1845. his wife being 
Miss Abigail A. Sholes, of Alleghany City, Pennsylvania. They have eight chil- 
dren : Hannah Elizabeth is the wife of J. W. McKean, of Minneapolis ; Charlotte 
M. is the wife of Henry Clinton, of Los Angeles county, California; Abigail A. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 93 

is the wife of Edwin H. Hull, of Minneapolis ; Clara H. is the widow of the late 
Wm. L. Leslie, killed in the mill explosion at Minneapolis in the spring of 1878 ; 
and Kate, Jessie B., Charles H. and James Benton are single. 



ELI M. MOREHOUSE, M.D., 

OWATONNA. 

ELI MARTIN MOREHOUSE, state senator from Steele county and a 
successful physician of Owatonna, dates his birth at Warren, Trumbull 
county, Ohio, on the 2d of March, 1S33, his parents being Nelson and Sarah 
Johnson Morehouse. His father, Levi Morehouse, was a mill owner. His grand- 
father, Eli Morehouse, participated in the second war with England. 

Dr. Morehouse received an academic education in Warren; commenced read- 
ing medicine when a mere lad, his preceptor being the celebrated Dr. William 
Paine, professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the University of 
Medicine and Surgery, Philadelphia; at eighteen years of age commenced prac- 
ticing at Warren, and two years later received his diploma from the above 
named college. 

In 1853 Dr. Morehouse crossed the Mississippi river; practiced two years 
at Independence, Buchanan county, Iowa; in 1855 removed to Owatonna, being 
the pioneer physician, and has here been in practice since that date, having an 
extensive ride for many years. In 1864, in order to have a respite from severe 
labors, he took a trip to Montana and other territories, not without a very mild 
run of the gold fever as well as some taste for adventure. He was absent two 
years, in practice part of this time at Virginia City, Montana. At times he has 
been in the drug business and other trade. 

In May, 1871, he led off in the formation of the Minnesota State Eclectic 
Medical Society, of which he was the first president, and again holds that office ; 
he being one of the leading men in the. state in that school of medicine. He 
is also a member of the National Eclectic Medical Association, and has received 
diplomas from the New York and Cincinnati eclectic medical colleges. The 
Doctor has a vivid recollection of Owatonna and the surrounding country in 
the territorial days of Minnesota, his rides not unfrequently extending over 
roadless prairies and across unbridged streams. He was one of the first jury- 
men impaneled in Steele county. 



94 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

He was chosen a member of the state senate in 1877, and in the session 
held in the following year was on seven committees, including those of public 
lands, Indian affairs, State Universit\- and Library. He was a republican before 
the civil war, has been a democrat since. 

The Doctor belongs to the camp in Odd-Fellowshi];, and is a Knight Templar 
among the Masons. 

In September, 1868, Miss Lorinda A. .McCorosty, of Steele count)-, was mar- 
ried to the Doctor, and they have four children. 

Since locating in Owatonna Dr. Morehouse has been quite active in advanc- 
ing its interests, and in local enterprises has been among the foremost men. In 
1867 he built the Morehouse block, with two fine large stores, and an opera hall 
overhead. He has three improved farms and considerable unimproved land. 
The farm on which he lives, adjoining the town, has four hundred acres, and the 
surroundings of his home are tasty and pleasant. He has a competency — the 
proceeds of his professional labor, coupled with shrewd investments, — yet is in 
the prime of life, and so busy that nobody suspects there was an)' laziness in 
the Morehouse family for him to inherit. 



HON. JAMES McHENCH, 

PLAIN VIEW. 

THE older settled counties in the southern part of Minnesota have a large 
representation of thrifty farmers. Coming into the state early, before, 
indeed, it was a state ; making a good selection of lands, and being men of 
enterprise and push, they have opened large farms ; have them well improved 
and thoroughly stocked, and are now in independent circumstances. This class 
of men are numbered by the thousand, most of them being not onl\' begin- 
ners here, but poor, twenty and twenty-five years ago. Among these enter- 
prising and prosperous agriculturists, who commenced opening a farm in the 
Territory of Minnesota a little more than twenty )'ears ago, with but little 
capital save a good constitution, two hands alread\- toil-hartlcned ami an innate 
disposition to work, is the present senator Irom Wabasha county. 

James McHench has none but Scotch blood running in his veins, both 
parents, William and Ann (Ferguson) McHench, being of that descent. John 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 95 

McHench, the grandfather of James, came from the "auld" country and settled 
in Massachusetts, where his son William was born; and afterward moved to 
Broome, now Gilboa, Schoharie county, New York, where the grandson, the 
subject of this brief memoir, was born on the loth of March, 1824, and where, 
on the same farm, both his father and grandfather died. All the mental train- 
ing James ever had, besides that obtained by himself in private, was that ob- 
tained in a district school before he was seventeen ; at which ao-e he be^an 
teaching, and he followed it for fifteen consecutive winters, farming the rest 
of the time. 

In May, 1856, Mr. McHench came to Wabasha county, Minnesota, pre- 
empted a quarter-section of land on Greenwood prairie, opened a farm, and 
added to it from time to time until he has six hundred acres in Wabasha 
county, five-sixths of it improved, and eight hundred acres of wild land in 
Martin county, purchased in 1878. His farm on Greenwood prairie is one of 
the best in tlic county, and on it he usually has from forty to eighty cattle, fifty 
to seventy-five hogs, and a dozen horses ; he being a stock-raiser and stock- 
dealer, as well as a farmer, and reads and experiments and puts science into 
all his business. He has an abundance of small fruits of every kind that 
grows in the state, and a few of the large kinds, the cultivated crab-apple, 
etc. He has extraordinary foresight in anticipating the market price of cattle, 
grain, etc., and selling at the right time. 

Mr. McHench has served at different times on the board of supervisors 
of his county, part of the time as chairman ; was on the executive board of 
the State Agricultural Society for seven or eight years, and takes great interest 
in anything that tends to encourage the development of the wealth of the 
great "North Star State." He is liberal in the giving of time to public enter- 
prises, and in every other respect. Mr. McHench began his labors in the state 
senate in the session held in 1877, when he was chairman of the committee 
on agriculture. In the session following he was chairman of the committee 
on Insane Asylum, being also each time on two or three other committees. 
His judgment in legislative matters is excellent, and he attends very closely 
to his duties. 

Senator McHench voted the whig ticket in 1852, and has since acted uni- 
formly with the republican party, being both active and infiuential in local 
politics. 



96 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

While in Xcw York state he was a member of the Christian church, but 
there is no such relicrious orcjanization in Plainview. He cherishes his faith 
most sacredly, is a church-goer, and a \ cry liberal supporter of the gospel. 

Senator McHench was married in September, 1845, ^'^ Miss B. Ann Coonley, 
of Ciilboa, New York. They have had two children, and lost both. 



HON. ANDREW McHENCH. 

FARGO. 

ANDREW McHENCH, many years a resident of Minnesota, and at one 
^ time a leading man in Sibley county, and now (1878) a member of the 
territorial council of Dakota, is a native of Schoharie county. New York, being 
born in Gilboa, on the 12th of November, 1832. He is a younger brother of 
the senator from Wabasha county, Minnesota, Hon. James McHench, in whose 
sketch the parentage and pedigree of Andrew McHench may be found. 

Andrew worked on his father's farm and attended a district school during 
the winters, until about nineteen ; after which age he spent a year in Rich- 
mondville, Schoharie County Academy, and about two years in Antioch College, 
Ohio ; purposing, at one time, to take a full college course, but finally abandon- 
ing the plan, pursuing such studies as he thought would be most beneficial to 
him in lite. 

In the autumn of 1856 Mr. McHench came to Minnesota, and, after pros- 
pecting a short time, in the following spring settled at Henderson, the seat of 
justice of Sibley county, teaching one term after coming west. He traded at 
Henderson four or five years, filling some office most of the time while in 
that county. He was township supervisor one term, justice of the peace awhile, 
county commissioner and chairman of the board one term, deputy assessor of 
internal revenue, and postmaster, about three years each, resigning both offices 
when he left the county. 

In 1866 Mr. McHench removed to Minneapolis, where he engaged in the 
business of kiln-drying lumber, a scheme not attended with the most brilliant 
success. In the autumn of 1870 he removed to Fargo, his tamily following him 
the next spring. There he has a farm of more than three hundred acres near 
town, about one hundred and thirty acres of it improved, he being a thorough- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 97 

going practical farmer. His land is in the valley of the Red River of the North, 
one of the best wheat growing sections of the country, and he usually sows 
a hundred acres or more of this cereal. He has an orchard of crab-apples,, 
which do admirably in that latitude. Besides farming, Mr. McHench also deals 
in agricultural implements, having a warehouse in the city of Fargo. His busi- 
ness capacities are excellent, as is also his standing in the community. 

When Cass county, Dakota territory, was organized in 1873, Mr. McHench 
was appointed county superintendent of schools, and was afterward elected to 
the same office. He was a member of the territorial council in the winters 
of 1874-75, ^'""^1 •" 1876-77, the sessions being biennial. 

He is a staunch republican, and in 1876 was a delegate to the national 
convention which nominated R. B. Hayes, his first choice being James G. Blaine. 

The wife of Mr. McHench was Miss Helen Stanton, of Middleburah, Scho- 
harie county. New York; married on the 24th of October, 1864. They have 
two children. 



GEORGE R. PATTON, A.M., M.D., 

LAKE cnr. 

r^ EORGE RANDOLPH PATTON was born in Allenville, Mifflin county, 
VJ Pennsylvania, on the 16th of August, 1834. His parentage is American; 
the ancestors of his father (who is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) being 
Irish, and those of his mother (who is a native of New Haven, Connecticut) 
English, who settled in Connecticut in 1867. His parents, yet in vigorous health, 
celebrated in Lake City, Minnesota, their golden wedding on the 31st of Decem- 
ber, 1878. 

The subject of this sketch removed with his parents to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 
April, 1845. He spent four years in the old Cincinnati College, now merged 
into Herron's Classical Seminary, and subsequently graduated A.B. at the Miami 
University, Oxford, Ohio, after pursuing its four years' course of study. During 
his first college year he carried forward at the same time the studies of both the 
Ireshman and sophomore classes, entering the junior on a grade of ninety-seven 
and two-thirds at the end of the first year. One of his achievements in the 
university was a literal translation, in book form, of the odes, satires and epistles 
of Horace; also the " Greek Antiquities" of Thucydides, Plato, Contra, Atheos, 
and the Prometheus of .T^schylus. 



gS THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Dmiiiij;- the last year of his college course he pursued the study of Hebrew 
in the Associated Reformed Theological Seminary, with the view of the ministry. 
After studying theology one year in the Western Theological Seminary, then 
located in Cincinnati, he turned his attention to medicine; entered the office of 
Professor Geo. Mendcnhall, and graduated M.I). at the Miami Medical College, 
Cincinnati, in February, 1855. From February, 1854, to his graduation, he served 
as the outdoor physician of the city dispensary, affording a wide scope of clin- 
ical observation. 

He established himself in practice in Cincinnati in 1855, occupying an office 
with I'rofessor jolm V . White, of the Miami Medical College, until 1S56; after 
thai, until March, 1857, he was associated in the same office with I'rofessor E. 
Williams, the celebrated oculist, professor of ophthalmology in the Miami school. 
I le then opened an office in his own residence, corner of Fourth and John streets; 
removed to No. 241 West Seventh street in i860; to 360 West Eighth street in 
1867, and remained there till 1872, when ill-health, superinduced chiefly by over- 
work and an unfortunate post-mortem wound, compelling the relinc]uishment ot 
a large and lucrative practice, he retired to Lake City, Minnesota. 

His contributions to the public press and medical literature have been volu- 
minous. Among those of note ujjon medical to|)ics may be mentioned an article 
on "Elephantiasis Arabica," in the "Cincinnati Medical Observer," March 1856; 
the following in the "Cincinnati Lancet and Observer": "Contributions on 
Helminthology," June 1862, January 1863, and Februar)- 1864; "Phlegmasia 
Dolens," |unt; 1863; " Hai'morrhagic Diathesis," December 1867; "Antagonism 
of Aropia and Mor|)hia," June i86q; "A New Instrument for Urethritis," De- 
cember 1869; and in the "Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter," Febru- 
ary 1870 ; articles on the " Treatment of Urethritis," in the " Cincinnati Lancet and 
Observer," 1870; " Hepatitis," ibid., March 1S70; on " Insomnia," in the " Cincin- 
nati Medical Repertory," February 1870; "H)podermic Injections and Treat- 
ment by Atomization," in " Medical and Surgical R(>porter," March 1870. He is 
the inventor of a large number of surgical appliances, the most noted ot which is 
known as " Patton's reverse-llow fenestratetl injecting canula antl catheter"; also 
an apparatus for Colle's fracture ot the radius. 

In 1857 he was lecturer on materia medica and thera])eutics in the Miami 
Medical College, Cincinnati; in 1856 was elected physician of Lick Run Lunatic 
Asylum, declined ; was physician and surgeon to Saint John's Hospital during 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 99 

1855 and 1856; surgeon of the Seminary Hospital, 1862; surgeon of the United 
States Marine Hospital in 1863 ; the surgeon-in-chief of the Greenup Street Mili- 
tary Hospital during the war; city physician of Cincinnati from 1858 to 1865, 
and for a number of years consulting physician of the city dispensary. In 1867 
he was proffered the professorship of anatomy in the Cincinnati Dental College. 
From time to time since graduation he has spent, in the aggregate, over two 
years in special studies, under specialists, in the colleges and hospitals of New 
York and Philadelphia. He is a member of, and has held many offices in, vari- 
ous medical associations. Durincr the Crimean war he received a sureeon's com- 
mission in the Russian army for three years, but had it canceled at his own re- 
quest, on account of the war terminating as he was about to sail for Europe. He 
has performed about all the capital operations in surgery. 

The degree of M.D. ad eundem was conferred upon him by the Medical Col- 
lege of Ohio, Cincinnati, in 1858 ; and the degree of M.A. by the Miami Univer- 
sity in 1857. Among his published addresses may be noted the " Medical Pen- 
dulum," delivered before the Alumni Association of the Miami Medical College, 
Cincinnati, at the annual meeting on the 28th of February, 1876. He is a very 
fluent and effective speaker, and has never used at any time either notes or 
manuscript. 

On the 26th of March, 1857, he married Frances Mary, daughter of A. J. Pat- 
terson, Esq., of Cincinnati, and has had two children, a son and a daughter. The 
former, Edward A. Patton, is now M.D. ; graduated in the Miami Medical College, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 



EDWARD W. DURANT, 

STILLWATER. 

EDWARD WHITE DURANT, one of the leading lumbermen of Min- 
nesota, is a son of William W. and Susanna L. (Marsh) Durant, and was 
born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the 8th of April, 1829. He is of Huguenot 
descent, and about the sixth generation from Captain Edward Durant, who 
moved from Boston to Newton (Cambridge), Massachusetts, in 1732, and who, 
two years later, was refused the privilege of building a pew in the meeting-house. 
He owned a great deal of property, including three slaves. His son, Edward 
Durant, junior, was one of the leading and patriotic men of Newton, strongly 



lOO THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

opposing the arbitrary measures of tlie British goveniineiit for several years 
before the revolutionary war commenced. He was chairman cjI a committee in 
1765 in op])osition to the " Stamp Act," ami chairman of the committee of cor- 
respondence in 1774, and a delegate to the provincial congress in 1774 and 1775. 
He died in 17CS2. One of his sons, Dr. Edward Durant, was a surgeon in the 
navy during the strife for independence, and was never heard of after going to 
sea. The Durants seem to have been a very patriotic family. This Dr. Durant 
was the great-grandfather of our subject, whose grandfather, Jackson Durant, 
commanded a fort near Thomaston, Maine, in the second war with England. 

William W. Durant moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, when Edward was about 
nine years old, and there the son attended a boys' academy one year, the famil\- 
then pushing westward to Whiteside county, Illinois. After spending about 
four years there on a farm, the famil)- moved into the little village of Albany, in 
that county, in 1844, the educational privileges of the son being limited to the 
winter term of a district school. 

Up to nineteen years of age farming was the occupation of Mr. Durant, but 
it was not, at that period, the most congenial to his taste, and leaving home he 
came to Stillwater; worked three seasons on the river, rafting lumber, etc.; then 
became a pilot between Stillwater, Saint Paul and Saint Louis, following that 
business for fifteen years. Meantime he had a half interest in a store at 
Albany, Illinois, owning at one time a warehouse and other property at that 
place. During the latter part of this piloting period, and for two years afterward, 
he was general manager for Hersey, Staples and Co. along the river. 

For the last thirteen or fourteen years Mr. Durant has been in the general 
lumber business, being of the firm of Durant, Wheeler and Co. since 1872. 
They buy and sell lumber, making advances, and handling about forty-five million 
feet annually, having half-a-dozen tow lioats of their own. They have a boat 
yard and saw-mills at south Stillwater, and their whole transactions amount 
to about five hundred thousand tlollars per annum. 

Mr. Durant is one of the busiest men in Stillwater, never neglecting his 
business, yet managing in such an e.\peditious way as to get time to attend to 
municipal and other jniblic matters. He has been a member of the city council 
several terms ; has served twice as mayor, and has represented the city of Still- 
water two sessions in the legislature. In any position placed, he shows great 
business capacities, and fine executive talents. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. \o\ 

In politics, he was a republican until 1872, when he voted the liberal ticket, 
and has since acted with the democrac}'. In 1874 he was the democratic can- 
didate for lieutenant-governor, and in 1876 was president of the democratic state 
convention. 

He is Grand Master of Masons of the State of Minnesota. He is a liberal 
supporter of the local christian churches, and a true friend of the poor and 
unfortunate. 

Tire wife of Mr. Durant was Miss Henrietta Pease, of Albany, Illinois; their 
marriage dating on the 29th of December, 1853. They have three children, and 
lost their first child. 



HON. ZIBA B. CLARKE, 

BENSON. 

PROBABLY no man of his age, living in Minnesota, is better acquainted 
with its history, resources, public men, etc., than Ziba Burt Clarke, banker 
and journalist at Benson, and the first man to represent Lac-qui-parle county 
in the legislature. He is a son of Joseph and Julia Dunaway Clarke, and was 
born in Licking county, Ohio, on the i8th of October, 1844. His ancestors on 
his father's side were Pennsylvanians ; on his mother's, Virginians. His maternal 
grandfather, Joseph Dunaway, was in the second war with England. Joseph 
Clarke moved with his family to Greene county, Wisconsin, in 1849, ^"^1 there 
lost his wife a year or two later. He is still living, being a resident of Dakota 
Territory. In 1855 he removed to Winneshiek county, Iowa, settling on a farm 
on Washington Prairie. 

The subject of this sketch, having a step-mother, and there being two sets of 
children in the family, did not live at home after he was seven or eight years old. 
He had only three months' schooling after he was ten. 

Up to 1859 he lived with different farmers; that year came into Olmsted 
county, Minnesota ; the next season went into a store at Pleasant Grove, and 
sold goods until the civil war commenced. In October, 1861, he enlisted as a 
private in company C, 3d Minnesota Infantry, and served till September, 1865, 
one month less than four years, the regiment then being mustered out. He was 
In many skirmishes, and a few battles, but never received a wound. During the 
last two years his regiment was fighting guerillas in Arkansas. 



I02 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

After returning from the south, Mr. Clarke was clerk of a steamboat two sea- 
sons on the Mississippi and Chippewa rivers, plying between La Crosse and 
Eau Claire, being at this period in a store at Rumsey's Landing, Wisconsin, 
while navigation was closed. Subsequentl)- he shipped lumber one season from 
La Crosse to Rushford and Houston, then new towns on the Southern Minne- 
sota railroad. 

From 1S67 to 1869 Mr. Clarke was in a hardware store as salesman and 
bookkeeper at Rochester, Minnesota. In the spring of 1870 he settled in Lac- 
qui-parle, then a part of Redwood county, locating where the village of Lac-qui- 
parle now stands, there being then no building of any kind on the site of the 
town. There he made a tent ot his wagon cover, and li\ed in genuine bachelor 
style for si.x months, turning between fifty and sixty acres of sod the first year, 
and drawing twenty thousand feet of lumber from Benson with two yoke of oxen. 
He made the first traveled road .between I^enson and the village of Lac-qui- 
parle, a distance of thirty-five miles ; merchandized there two years, and then 
retired from trade. He was the first clerk of the district court of Lac-qui-parle 
county, appointed by Judge Hanscomb, and afterward elected by the people, 
serving in all three years, and then resigning. 

In 1874 he rei)resented Lac-qui-parle and six other counties in the legis- 
latLU'e, being the member from the thirty-seventh district. The next year he was 
appointed enrolling clerk ot the house. 

In the autumn of 1875 Governor Davis appointed Mr. Clarke to investigate 
the extent of the grasshopper devastations in the northwestern part ot the state. 
After doing his work thoroughly, he made a careful report to his Excellency, on 
which report, in his next message, the governor recommcMTded the appropriation 
of seventy-five thousand dollars to aid the sufferers. 

In October, 1875, Mr. Clarke removed to Benson; dealt in hardware one 
year; bought the Benson "Times" and conducted it awhile; disposed of his 
interest, and in Septemlicr, 1877, founded the "Advocate," of which he is still 
editor and proi)rietor. 

In November, 1877, he organized the Swift County Bank, which he also man- 
ages. He is one of the most efficient businc;ss men in the county, — prompt, expe- 
ditious, reliable, and possessing the same energy and push that he exhibited when 
plowing and drawing lumber barefooted in 1870, and camping out "wherever 
nioht overtook him." 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 103 

Mr. Clarke has uniformly affiliated with the republican party, and both in pri- 
vate and through his newspapers has much political influence in this part of the 
state. He is a third-degree Mason. 

On the gth of January, 1872, Miss Dora C. Eaton, of Mankato, Minnesota, 
became the wife of Mr. Clarke, and they have two children, Nellie F., aged five 
years, and Fred Blaine, aged three. 



HON. FRANCIS M. CROSBY, 

HASTINGS. 

FRANCIS MARION CROSBY, judge of the first judicial district of Min- 
nesota for the last seven years, dates his birth at Wilmington, Windham 
county, Vermont, on the 13th of November, 1830. His parents, Eliel Crosby and 
Grateful ncc Allen, belong to the agricultural class, his father descending from 
an old Massachusetts family. 

Francis received his education at the Wilmington high school and the Mount 
Caesar Seminary, Swanzey, New Hampshire; teaching winter schools after he was 
seventeen, until he had completed his literary and part of his legal studies. He 
read law at VV'ilmington with Hon. Oscar L. .Shafter, since chief justice of Cali- 
fornia, and at Manchester, Bennington county, with Hon. Daniel Roberts; was 
admitted to the bar at Bennington in December, 1855, and practiced at Wilmino-- 
ton until May, 1858, at which date he settled in Hastings. Before leaving his 
native state he served two sessions, 1855 and 1856, in the legislature. 

Since coming to Minnesota, Mr. Crosby has been interrupted more or less in 
his legal practice, serving in i860 and 1861 as judge of probate, and having been 
on the district bench since the ist of January, 1872, his term of seven years expir- 
ing with the present year (1878). He was re-elected for another term of seven 
years, at the election held in November, 1878, without opposition. 

Judge Crosby is not only an able, but a very laborious jurist. He is distin- 
guished for his urbanity and courtesy to both lawyers and laymen who have 
occasion to come before him. 

Judge Crosby has been city attorney of Hastings two or three terms, and was 
on the school board in some capacity from 1866 until he went on the bench. 

In politics, the Judge was originally a free-soiler, voting for John P. Hale for 



104 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

PresideiU in 1S52. On the formation of the republican party he joined it, and 
has never wavered in his support of its measures. 

Judge Crosby was first married on the 30th of May, 1S66, to Miss Helen 
Mar Sprague, of Cooperstown, New York. She died on the i6th of November, 
1869, leaving ont: child, P'rank Noble, now aged eleven years. His present wife 
was Miss Helen S. Bates, of Cherry Valley, New York; married in October, 
1872. By her he has three children, Howard Walworth, Marion Emma, and 
Helen Bates. 



HON. HENRY M. RICE, 

SAINT PAUL. 

HENRY M. RICE, an early delegate to congress from Minnesota territory, 
and afterward a United States senator, is a native of Vermont, and was 
horn in Waitsfiekl, on the 29th of November, 1816. Hjs parents were Edmund 
and Ellen Durkee Rice. His grandfather Durkee was in the French war of 1755. 

He was educated at the Burlington Academy, in his native state ; read law 
two years with Hon. William P. Briggs, of Richmond, \"ermont, and in 1835 
came to Detroit, Michigan, with Hon. Elon Farnsworth, then a resident of the 
Peninsula State. 

Two years later he was employed by the state engineer who located the Sault 
Ste Marie canal and other works. In 1S39 '^^ came to what is now the State 
of Minnesota ; spent the winter at Fort Snelling, and the next spring was ap- 
p<)int(-d sutler at Fort Atkinson, in what is now Winneshiek county, Iowa; 
soon afterward became connected with the fur company, and had charge of the 
trade with the Chippewas and Winnebagoes, under the general direction of 
Pierre Choteau, junior, and Co., who had numerous trading posts between Lake 
Superior and Red Lake, and thence northward to the British possessions. Mr. 
Rice became early and thoroughly acquainted with the Lake Superior country 
and the region to the westward, and with the habits of the tribes with whom 
he had to deal. 

In 1846, when a delegation of Winnebagoes went to Washington, and their 
principal chief Watch-ha-ta-kaw was detained by sickness. Mr. Rice was desig- 
nated to take his place, and aided in negotiating a treaty with the government, 
disposing of the lands of this tribe in northern Iowa. He also officiated in four 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 105 

or five other treaties. On tlie 2d of August, 1847, he and Isaac Verplanl<;, Indian 
commissioners, purchased from the Cliippewas of Lake Superior and the Missis- 
sippi, the country lying on the Mississippi and Long Prairie rivers. On the 
2 1 St of the same month they purchased from the Pillager Indians, at Leech 
Lake, the country lying between Otter Tail, Long Prairie, Crow Wing and Leaf 
rivers, for a Menominee reservation. In 1854 Mr. Rice aided in making a treaty 
with the Chippewas, extinguishing their title to lands lying between the Missis- 
sippi and Lake Superior ; and the next year made a treaty with the Chippewas 
and Pillagers for part of their lands extending from the head-waters of the 
Mississippi to the British possessions. In 1863 a treaty was made through Mr. 
Rice with the tribes just mentioned and the Lake Winnebagoshish Indians, for 
various reservations on the upper Mississippi. 

In 1853 Mr. Rice was elected a delegate to congress, and by re-election 
served two terms. During his first term he secured the passage of a bill, extend- 
ing the pre-emption laws over the unsurveyed lands of Minnesota territory, thus 
legalizing all settlements made in advance of public surveys. In 1857, during 
his second term in congress, he procured an act authorizing the people of the 
territory to form a state constitution. During the same session of congress 
he secured the land grant for the principal railroads now running through Min- 
nesota. He also procured the passage of an act making Minnesota a surveyor- 
general's district, and securing the removal of the surveyor-general's office from 
Detroit to Saint Paul. 

In the autumn of 1857 Mr. Rice was elected to the United States senate, and 
served six years. He was a member of the peace committee, which met just 
before civil war burst upon the land. His best work in the senate was done in 
the committees on finance, military, public lands, post offices and post roads. 
His affiliations have always been with the democratic part)-. 

The wife-of Mr. Rice was Miss Matilda Whitall, of Richmond, Virginia; mar- 
ried on the 29th of March, 1849. 

Mr. Rice was not only one of the founders of Saint Paul, but the founder of 
Bayfield, Wisconsin, on Lake Superior ; and he selected and purchased the site 
of Munising, on Lake Superior, in Michigan. It is said that he lived in Michi- 
gan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, both when they were territories and after 
they became states. He has been a resident of Saint Paul since 1849, ^"^ to 
the original plat of the city made an important addition. Rice Park, in front 



I06 THE UN/TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

of the city hall, was donated by him ; and to Rice county, named for him, he 
donated a very valuable political library, consisting of more than five hundred 
volumes. He donated lots in Saint Paul for churches, public institutions and 
to private parties, all to encourage settlement and worthy enterprises. He also 
built warehouses, business blocks and hotels, and has ever shown a great degree 
of energy and public spirit. His name is indelibly and honorably woven into 
the history of Saint Paul and the state. 



SAMUEL C. GALE, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

THE Gales of the United States are mostly of English, or rather Scotch, 
origin. For many centuries iamilies ot that name have lived in Yorkshire, 
Devonshire, and other parts of England. The name was originalh- spelled in 
various ways : Gall, Galle, Gail, Gale, and Gael, — the last being the most usual 
method of spelling it, until within a hundred and fifty years, and is still adhered 
to by several of the English branches of the family. The word is of Celtic origin, 
and signifies a stranger, or wanderer, and from a very early date was used as 
a general name for the inhabitants of the Scottish highlands. Individuals of this 
people descended into England, most likely, early in the middle ages, and were 
naturally designated b)- their race name. The " Domesday Book," compiled 
near the close of the eleventh century, under the direction of William the Con- 
queror, mentions the estate of "Gale's Shore," in Devonshire, as being in the 
possession of one Count Moriton. This estate had doubtless been confiscated 
by the Conqueror, and given to his follower, the Norman count. In the "Hun- 
dred Rolls," of 1273, the Gales are again mentioned as having some landed estates. 
In the seventeenth century several of this name became honorably distinguished. 
Rev. Theophilus Gale, born in Devonshire in 1628, was a noted Nonconformist 
minister, and wrote several books. At his death he bequeathed his large library 
to Harvard College, Massachusetts. Dr. Thomas Gale, who lived about the same 
time, was an eminent divine and antiquarian, and wrote the anti-papal inscrijjtion 
on the London Monument, which Pope says 

" Like a tall bully lifts its bead and lies." 
From this Devonshire stock, unquestionably, came the Richard Gale who set- 
tled on a •• honiestall" of six acres in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1640, and 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 1 09 

who is the ancestor of most of the American Gales. Before his death this six 

acres had widened into two hundred and fifty acres, upon which a part of the 

village of Watertown now stands. This tract remained in possession of the 

family until about 1854, when it became the homestead of Major-General N. P. 

Banks. Richard's name is not found among the members of the Watertown 

church, and so for this reason, if for no other, he never was allowed to vote in the 

affairs of the town or hold office ; and notwithstanding the town could boast of a 

school-house " twenty-two feet long and fourteen feet wide," which was robbed by 

an Indian of "seventeen Greek and Latin books " in 1664, Richard himself, it 

appears, never mastered the art of writing, for his will is signed with his mark. 

The inventory found recorded with this will affords some quaint and curious 

information as to property and values in that ancient colony just two hundred 

years ago (1679). We reproduce some of the entries, preserving their ancient 

orthography : 

Six acres of upland upon the great plaine joyning to ye farme, three pounds. Three acres of 
meadow lieing upon stonie brooke, six pounds. Two Oxen, five cows, two heifers of a year and van- 
tage, twenty-five pounds. His wearing cloths, both woolin and linin, one pound five shillings. A 
peuter plater, a peuter bason, a peuter quart, 6 spoons, six shillings. 2 iron kettles, one iron pot, a pair 
of pot hooks, a trarnell, one pound one shilling. An old spinning wheel, a small parcel of wooUin 
yarn, a paire of cards, seven shillings. Eight bushels of rye, a small parcel of salt meat in ye tub, two 
pounds four shillings. A firelock musket, a spit, a smoothing iron, sixteen shillings. An iron gripe for 
a plow, a barking iron, a cross cut saw, 4 old hows, 2 old sickles, other old iron, fourteen shillings. 
12 yards of woollin home-made cloth, one pound four shillings. 

Richard Gale had five children ; among them, Abraham. This Abraham, 
" selectman " in i 706, left sixteen children, every one with a good old bible name, 
and among them another Abraham, "selectman " in 1718. Isaac, a son of the 
latter, removed from Watertown to Sutton, in the same state. From here he 
marched with a company of men into the French and Indian war in 1757. He 
valued his military achievements so high that at his death he bequeathed his 
sword to the successive Isaacs in his family line. In 1864, the last Isaac being 
dead, this sword was presented to Galesville University, Wisconsin, for preserva- 
tion. His son, also named Isaac, removed from Sutton to Royalston, in the same 
state, in 1770. He served as sergeant in the campaign of 1776, in the northern 
army, at Ticonderoga. Jonathan, son of the last named Isaac, and one of thir- 
teen children, was also in the revolutionary war, member of the 3d regiment 
Massachusetts Volunteers, though at the time but sixteen years of age. Jona- 
than's son Isaac, also one of thirteen children, and the eldest, served fifty-six days 
13 



no THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in the war of icSi2, for which service his surviving widow draws a pension. He 
occupied, with his father, a rocky, sterile farm in the west part of his native town. 
In 1813 he married Tamar Goddard, whose father, Samuel Goddard, a tanner, 
shoe-maker and farmer, with his eighteen children, lived one mile away. To Isaac 
and Tamar were born ten children, the eldest of whom was Rev. Amory Gale, 
mentioned elsewhere in this volume, and the seventh of whom is the subject of 
this sketch. How subsistence for two such large families, embracing twenty- 
three children, was wrung from such a patch of unpromising soil, is a marvel, 
yet it was done, and respectably, too. The old red school-house, a mile and a 
half distant, saw all this array of young folks, duly equipped, filing in through 
its door every day in the year when that door was open, and on Sunday the 
same procession was started off just as promptly to " meetin'." 

The father, Isaac, died in 1838, after a lingering illness of six years, leaving 
the chief care and support of the family upon the mother. Her remarkable spirit 
and energy entitle her to special mention in these annals. .She was of that God- 
dard family whose English ancestor was Edward Goddard, a wealthy farmer of 
Norfolk, who, taking the parliament side in the civil war, was reduced to poverty 
by the Cavaliers. His son, William, "citizen and grocer," of London, in 1666 
"embarked for the Amc^rican wilderness with his wife and children, and landed in 
Watertown, settling on a small farm directly opposite the meeting-house," almost 
in sight of the " homestall " of Richard Gale; though the two family streams did 
not unite until they had Bowed, after that, a long time and a long way, separately. 

Here are some curious e.xtracts from the record of this William, in the ar- 
chives of the town : 

Admitted to full communion January 8, 1677; adinitted freeman (voter) December, 1677. 

March 27, 1680: Tliese are to certify that Mr. William Goddard, whom the said town, by cov- 
enanting, engaged to teach such children as should be sent to him to learn the rules of the Latin 
tongue, hath those accomplishments which render him capable to discharge the trust confided to him. 

(Signed) John Sherman, Pastor. 

His son Benjamin, "admitted to full communion July 31, 1687," lived in 
Charlestown. A second Benjamin, son oi last named, a " housewright," settled 
in Grafton, Massachusetts, whence his son Samuel, Ijefore mentioned, removed to 
Royalston, and .settled upon a tract of wild land, about the year 1780. His was 
a representative household of the old Puritan stock ; prayerful, persistent, hard- 
working, faithful, unlovely, and ambitiou.s. Most of the children inherited unusual 
intellectual ability, and, in spite of scanty means, several of the eleven sons acquired 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. Ill 

a liberal education. They all reached maturit)' but three, and were intelligent men 
of high character. The eldest, Samuel, was a Congregational clergyman ; settled 
at Norwich, Vermont, and widely known throughout that state. Colonel Salmon 
Goddard succeeded his father at the old homestead, and was a man of decided 
mark and influence. A son of one of the daughters (Elizabeth) is Judge Asahel 
Peck, late governor of Vermont. The daughter Tamar, though married young 
and denied opportunities for education and culture, and compelled, moreover, to 
walk through many laborious, anxious years, carrying her fatherless young fam- 
ily, still through it all she maintained such hopeful vigor of body, of understand- 
ing, and of religious principle, as could not be overcome. Though in her eighty- 
filth year, she is still living, and in possession of all her faculties. She resides 
with her son in Minneapolis. 

Samuel Chester Gale was born on the 15th of September, 1827. At five 
years of age he was apprenticed to his mother's brother, Salmon, to learn the 
tanner's trade. It soon appeared that he had more aptitude for books than for 
tanning, so the tanning was dismissed when he was seventeen years old. From 
this time he set about preparation for college, supporting himself meantime by 
farm labor and by teaching, contributing also toward the support of his mother's 
family. This compelled a broken course of study at the several academies of 
that region — New Salem, Shelburne Falls and West Brattleboro. He finally 
entered Yale College, where he graduated in 1854, in a class of ninety-seven 
members. Toward his support in college he received kindly aid from his uncle, 
Benjamin Goddard, of Worcester, Massachusetts. In college Mr. Gale held a 
leading position in his class as an independent thinker, and especially as a de- 
bater. At graduation he was elected class orator by his associates. He then 
attended Harvard Law School for one year, and the next two years taught schools 
at New Haven and Worcester, in the meantime continuino- to read law. In 
May, 1857, moved by that impulse which sends half of young New England 
to the west, he emigrated to Minneapolis, where, in the succeeding fall, he was 
admitted to the bar. After a year or two of law practice, he found himself so 
much engaged in real-estate transactions, as well as in loan and insurance broker- 
age, that law practice in court was no longer attempted. This business has been 
ever since continued, and has proved successful. For a considerable portion of 
the time his younger brother, Harlow A. Gale, and Geo. H. Rust, have been 
associated with him, the style of the firm being Gale and Co. Mr. Gale has been 



112 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

prominent and influential in aiding to shape the policy and character of the young 
city of his choice, having for several years been a member of the council, board 
of education, and president of the board of trade. His tastes and habits are 
scholarly, being especially fond of historical and scientific studies, and is, on 
occasion, an effective writer and public speaker. In politics, he is an independent 
republican ; in religion, a rationalist. 

Mr. Gale was married on the 15th of October, 1861, to Miss Susan A. 
Damon, of Holden, Massachusetts, who was educated chiefly at Maplewood In- 
stitute, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She is a descendant, in the lifth degree, from 
Deacon John Damon, who emigrated from Reading, England, to Reading, Mas- 
sachusetts, as early as 1645. Their home in Minneapolis is a spacious and 
attractive one, abounding in books and children. Their eldest son, Edward 
Chenery, is at present a freshman in Minnesota University. 



REV. AMORY GALE, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

THE following necessarily brief sketch of the Rev. Amory Gale has been 
obtained from different articles, written subsequent to his death, and from 
living relatives : 

Our subject was born in Royalston, Massachusetts, on the 21st of August, 
18 1 5. The names of his parents, the genealogy of his family, and items of 
interest relating thereto, will be found in the sketch of his brother, S. C. Gale, 
elsewhere printed in this volume. He spent his early youth on his father's farm, 
where, under the influence of a devout christian mother, was laid the foundation 
for that after-life which was so nobly devoted to his fellow-men. 

When nineteen years of age he became a member of the First Baptist Church, 
of Worcester, Massachusetts. Feeling that his true field of labor was in the 
ministry, he began his studies in the Worcester Academy, where he graduated 
in 1H39; he then entered Brown University, and graduated in 1843. From 
there he went to the Newton Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1846. 
Through all this course of study Mr. Gale almost wholly provided his expenses 
by teaching and preaching. His first sermon was preached in Worcester, in 
August, 1837; from that time forth his pulpit labor increased, until, during his 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. II3 

last year at Newton, he was preaching, on an average, three sermons a week. 
He was 'ordained on the i ith of November, 1846, at Ware, Massachusetts. Here, 
and at Lee, he labored successfully for ten years. In the spring of 1S57 he re- 
moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he accepted the call of the First Baptist 
Church, remaining its pastor one year. In 1858 he received the appointment of 
general missionary for Minnesota, and for sixteen years he faithfully devoted his 
time, talents and ability to the service of the state convention and to the Ameri- 
can Baptist Home Mission Society, with an earnest, energetic, active wisdom 
seldom equaled. During this time he preached, in round numbers, five thousand 
sermons, made sixteen thousand family calls, sold or donated twenty-five thou- 
sand volumes, distributed two hundred and fifty-six thousand pages of tracts, and 
traveled one hundred thousand miles. His only respite during this time was five 
weeks, and even then he was not idle, for in that time he prepared and delivered 
a centenary address in his native town. 

The great element of vital force in his character was his persistence in the 
accomplishment of any purpose. Nothing daunted him, and difficulties but in- 
creased his exertions. 

This from an address of Rev. F. K. Roberts, whose impression of Mr. Gale 
was the same as hundreds of others : 

I was impressed with the strength of his ardent temperament ; he was enthusiastically in earnest. 
His labors show that difficulties did not appall him. He could ford a river, walk a trestle, go through 
mud and rain, sleep on the prairie, under a tent, in a log school-house, or on the cabin floor, the com- 
mon bed of the family, and yet work on. What an immense vital force there must have been in the 
man, which propelled him on against wind and tide, disposition and will ! 

In the spring of 1874 Mr. Gale resigned the general agency of the Baptist 
Home Mission Society, on account of declining health, and soon after departed 
on a tour to the old world. He had long cherished a desire to visit the Holy 
Land and the many places of historical and sacred interest, and he undertook 
it now, in the vain hope that it would restore his feeble health. He visited 
England and Scotland, from there to the continent and the Holy Land, writing 
from many places very interesting descriptive letters to the home papers, under 
the nom-de-plume of " Minnehaha." His party reached Jerusalem about the 20th 
of November, and there Mr. Gale's failing health became quite prostrated. His 
indomitable energy refused to succumb, however, and he pushed on to Joppa, a 
two days' journey thence, with the rest of the party. During the last day out he 
had to be supported in his saddle by an attendant until their arrival at Joppa. 



114 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Here everything possible was done to rally his worn-out constitution, but all in 
vain. He continued sinking rapidly, becoming partially paralyzed, until the fourth 
day after reaching Joppa, when he peacefully closed his eyes forever — Thanks- 
givino- day, November 25, 1874. His remains were interred in a cemetery at 
Joppa, set apart for the burial of English and American people djing there. The 
announcement of his death reached his family and relatives while they were cele- 
brating the Christmas festivities, turning their joy into sorrow, and causing 
universal sadness wherever his name was known. 

Mr. Gale's widow and two children survived him. The daughter, Lucy Maria, 
wife of Samuel P. Putnam, of Boston, Massachusetts, has died since the death of 
her father. His son, A. F. Gale, resides in Minneapolis. His widow's maiden 
name was Caroline E. Goddard, daughter of Deacon Daniel Goddard, of Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts. She is a lady of rare culture and ability, and proved a 
worthy companion for one of the noblest of men. 



HON. LUTHER M. BROWN, 

SHAKOPEE. 

LUTHER MONTRAVILLE BROWN, son of Luther and Sophia (Morse) 
■t Brown, is a native of Rutland county, Vermont, where he was born on the 
1 8th of February, 1823. His father was drowned when the son was five years 
old, and his mother moved to her native town of Newbury, Merrimac county, 
New Hampshire, where Luther was put to work on his uncle's farm, where he 
remained until eighteen years of age. He was educated in the district schools 
and New Boston Academy, teaching during the winters, from the age of eighteen 
years, to defray expenses. He read law in Manchester, New Hampshire, for 
three years ; taught school in western New York and in Detroit, Michigan, and 
in the summer of 1853 came to Minnesota. He was admitted to the bar at 
Saint Paul on the 9th of September following, and immediately opened an office 
at Shakopee, where his home has been to the present time. 

On the organization of Scott county, in 1853, Mr. Brown was appointed the 

first county attorney. He was a member of the last territorial legislature (in 

■ '857); was appointed the first judge of the eighth judicial district, and was a 

member of the state legislature in 1874. On the death of Judge Chatfield, in 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 115 

October, 1875, Judge Brown was again appointed to the district bench, there 
sitting fourteen months. 

Judge Brown was originally a democrat, but became a republican on the 
formation of the party, and has acted with it since 1856. At an early period in 
this state he was quite active in politics, but latterly has taken less part, if not 
less interest. 

His wife, who was Miss Eliza J. Woodbury, a native of New Boston, New 
Hampshire, was a niece of the late Judge Levi Woodbury, who was secretary of 
the navy in President Jackson's cabinet. They were married on the 28th of Feb- 
ruary, 1850, and have four daughters. Ora M is the wife of H. J. Peck, city 
attorney, Shakopee ; Carrie W. is the wife of Orestes S. Brown, also of Shako- 
pee, and Eva E. and Hattie H. are single. 

The Judge has a pleasant home, with sixty acres of land, half a mile out of 
town, though in the city limits, and does but little practice. He is the oldest 
settler among the lawyers in the State, west of the Mississippi river. 



HENRY C. BUTLER, 

ROCHESTER. 

HENRY CURTISS BUTLER, register in bankruptcy, and a resident of 
Minnesota most of the time since 1850, dates his birth on the 25th' of Jan- 
uary, 1828, at Perry, Wyoming county. New York, his parents being William 
and Hannah Curtiss Butler. His branch of the Butler family were early settlers 
in Connecticut. William Butler was a farmer, but his son's taste inclined less to 
the plow than to books. He entered the old and excellent academy at Perry 
Center, Charles Huntington, principal, and at sixteen years of age was prepared 
to enter Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, graduating in July, 1848. He 
read law two years with Taggart and Wakeman, of Batavia, Genesee county; 
early in the year 1S50 came to Saint Paul, Minnesota ; in the autumn of the same 
year went to Beloit, Wisconsin, and for two years was in the law office of Keep 
and Todd, being admitted to the bar at Janesville, Wisconsin, in March, 1852. 
For three years he was engaged in speculating and miscellaneous business, and 
in 1855 opened a law office at Carimona, the old seat of justice of Fillmore coun- 
ty, Minnesota. Four years later he removed to Chatfield, in the same county, 



Il6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

where he practiced until 1864, when he settled in Rochester, his present home. 
Here he has attended very closely to his jjrofession, being in partnership until 
1871 with Richartl A. Jones, the firm name being Jones and Butler; latterly he 
has been alone. His business is large, and very few lawyers in southern Minne- 
sota are in their office during more hours of the day. He is thorough, prompt 
and reliable ; a man of fine mental culture and polished manners, and, in the best 
sense of the term, a gentleman. 

In 1866 Mr. Butler was appointed deputy collector of internal revenue for 
Olmsted count)-, holding the office until 1869. Three years later, on the recom- 
mendation of Chief Justice Chase, he was appointed, by the United States dis- 
trict court, register in bankruptcy, an office which he still holds. He was elected 
prosecuting attorney of Olmsted county in 1S75, his term expiring with the year 
1877. Mr. Butler was elected judge of probate in the fall of 1878. 

Mr. Butler was originally a republican ; followed the lead of President John- 
son on the reconstruction measures, and since 1867 has voted with the democ- 
racy. He is not a strong partisan, nor an office-seeker, the official positions 
which he has held being few and unsought, 

Mr. Butler is an Episcopalian ; has been junior warden of Calvary Church, 
Rochester, since the year after locating here, and is a man of uncpiestioned integ- 
rity and purity of life. 

He is a blue-lodge, chapter, commandery, and council Mason, and is at the 
present time (summer of 1878) grand warder of the Grand Commandery of Min- 
nesota. 

On the 30th of November, 1858, Miss Martha J. Ward, of Oshkosh, Wiscon- 
sin, became the wife of Mr. Butler, and they have had three children, losing one 
of them. 



HON. LKWIS MAYO, 

SAUK RAP IDS. 

LEWIS MAYO, state senator in 1876 and 1877, and now clerk of the district 
-^ court, is a son of Nathan and Mary Carleton Mayo, and dates his birth at 
Hampden, Penobscot county, Maine, on the 14th of August, 1828. The Mayos 
were originally from Ireland, and first settled at Cape Cod, spreading thence into 
Maine and many other states. Nathan Mayo was a farmer, and the son early 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 117 

acquainted himself witli agricultural pursuits. He was not very robust in youth, 
and, having a fondness for intellectual pursuits, he intended to take a thorough 
course of studies. With this object in view, he prepared for college at a local 
institution ; entered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1850, 
and on account of failing health, left at the close of the sophomore year. Dur- 
ing the next three or four years he was clerking and teaching most of the time. 
He had had the ministry in view while in college, and, entering the circuit, was 
pastor of the Methodist church at Patton for eleven months, when his health 
again gave out, and he was compelled to abandon his chosen profession. 

In 1856 Mr. Mayo went to Iowa; studied and practiced dentistry about two 
years in Poweshiek county; in the spring of 185S located at Winterset, Madison 
county, in the same state; was elected county superintendent of schools in 1859, 
and served two years, and then took the office of county judge, and held it till 
the spring of 1863. During this period he had given his leisure time to the study 
of law, and was admitted to the bar at Winterset on the ist of January, 1862, 
practicing awhile at that place. 

In the spring of 1867 Mr. Mayo came to Minnesota, and after spending a few 
months in East Minneapolis, located at Sauk Rapids in the autumn of the same 
year, being a druggist from that date. Since a resident of this place he has held 
several political offices, in all cases performing his duties with scrupulous regard 
to faithfulness, and in a most trustworthy manner. 

He was treasurer of Benton county from January, 1870, to January, 1874, and 
has been clerk of the district court since the latter date. 

During the two sessions that he was in the state senate, being a democrat, 
he had the chairmanship of no committee, but was on the committee on edu- 
cation both sessions, and was on the railroad committee during the last. He 
served also on two or three other committees, and made a useful member of the 
upper house. 

Mr. Mayo is a Master Mason ; has been a member of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church since the age of fourteen years ;' is steward of the .Sauk Rapids church, 
and a man of untiring zeal in the service of his Master. 

On the 1st of September, 1856, he was united in marriage with Miss Josephine 

Stetson, of West Sumner, Maine, and they have had three children, all dying 

before they were two years old. They have had great afflictions, and have the 

grace of God to aid in sustaining them. Mr. Mayo is a quiet, unobtrusive man, 
14 



Ii8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

of great firmness of character, and persevering in any praiseworthy undertaking. 
He is an extensive reader, has a fine literary taste, and is one of tlie best in- 
formed men in Sauk Rapids. 



HON. JAMES MCCANN, 

AXOKA. 

FEW men now living in the Rum River valley, Minnesota, it is probable, had 
a harder task than James McCann in childhood and youth, or performed 
it with a more manly and cheerful heart. His father died when he was only 
seven years old, leaving the widow nothing but a house to live in, and bequeath- 
ino- to the son nothinc!' but a good constitution. From his mother he inherited a 
resolute heart and habits of industr\-. His parents were William and Elizabeth 
(Eastman) McCann, and he was born in Saint Andrews, province of New Bruns- 
wick, on the 6th of July, 1814. William McCann was a native of Scotland. His 
wife was a daughter of David Eastman, who fought for the independence of the 
American colonics. 

James received such education as the common schools of the province af- 
forded, being compelled, however, by the straightened circumstances of his 
mother, to leave school entirely at an early age. When only ten or eleven 
years old he often went to the woods, two miles oft, cut wood and drew it home 
on a hand-sled. The season he was twelve he spent in working on a rigging-loft 
and aboard ship in the harbor of Saint Andrews, filling, part of the time, the 
position of steward. The next winter his mother married, and the family moved 
thirty miles from .Saint Andrews, where James farmed in the summers and 
lumbered in the winters, doinof a man's work and receivino' a man's waoes when 
only sixteen. 

In his seventeenth year he moved to the " Disputed Territory," on the line of 
Maine, working between one and two years for other parties, and at nineteen 
for himself lumbering and farming. In 1839, in company with two or three 
others, he took up a mill site on the Great Machias river, in Aroostook county, 
the site being a gift of the state. There he manufactured lumb(>r, ran a grist 
mill and farmed, until the gold fever began to spread over the land, reaching 
Maine very early in the year 1849. ^^^- McCann was one of the first persons 
in that commonwealth to catch it, and he made a prompt start. His route was 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. II9 

over the Alleghany Mountains, and down the affluents of the Mississippi and 
the Mississippi itself to the Cxulf of Mexico. It was just after General Taylor 
had been inaugurated President, and the democracy were making their hegira 
from the city of Washington ; and among his traveling companions, part of the 
way, were Cave Johnson, Jefferson Davis and Lewis Cass. 

From New Orleans Mr. McCann went to Vera Cruz, through the city of 
Mexico, and struck the Pacific coast at San Bias, — a novel route in those days 
to the then new Eldorado. He was in California from July, 1849, to Novem- 
ber, 1S51, mining part of the time with rather poor luck, and trading the last 
fifteen months with much better success. He returned by the Nicaragua route, 
sold his property in Maine, and in the spring of 1S52 came to Saint Anthony, 
now East Minneapolis, Minnesota; and after lumbering there between two and 
three years, took up a claim at Champlin, across the Mississippi river, one mile 
from Anoka. 

In the spring of 1856 Mr. McCann settled in this place, built a dam for Caleb 
Woodbury that year, bought the water-power a 3'ear or two later, manufactured- 
and sold lumber till 1870, and sold out to W. D. Washburn; since that date 
Mr. McCann has devoted himself exclusively to agriculture. He has a farm 
of a little more than two hundred acres, half a mile north of Anoka, most of 
it under excellent improvement. He uses a gang-plow with four horses, does 
all his own plowing, seeding and cutting of grain, being almost as sprightly as 
when working in a rigging loft a little more than fifty years ago. He has lived 
a temperate life, has been a teetotaler for twenty or thirty years, and regards 
it as a privilege rather than a curse that he has been obliged to earn much 
of his bread with a moist face. He is a hard-workinsf, straightforward man, and 
' full of public spirit. 

Mr. McCann was one of the very early commissioners of Anoka county, was 
a town supervisor quite recently, and in 1873 was a member of the Minnesota 
house of representatives. He has been offered other offices, but has declined 
them. He was an old-line whig till the party disbanded, and has since been 
a republican. 

He has had two wives, and is now a widower. He was first married in 1842, 
to Miss Abigail Brackett, a native of Kennebec county, Maine, she dying child- 
less in less than two years. His second marriage was in December, 1845, to 
Miss Ruth S. Abbott, also of Kennebec county, she dying on the 3d of June, 



I20 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

1877. She had ci^ht children — only two, both daughters, and both married, 
surviving her. Ella R. is the wife of D. C. Thurston, of Murray county, Min- 
nesota, and Ada F. is the wife of C. T. Sowden, of Anoka. 

Mr. McCann is in independent circumstances, and all he has is the fruit of 
his untiring industry. He has usually been favored with excellent health, and 
evidently believes that laziness is no part of a man's duty, even should he 
inherit it. 



HON. OZORA P. STEARNS, 

DULUTH. 

ABRAHAM STEARNS, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Ozora 
^ Pierson Stearns, served in the army through the revolutionary war, and 
at its close settled at Chesterfield, New Hampshire. Here he married Esther 
Warren, a daughter of Captain Daniel Warren, who commanded a company 
under his cousin. General Joseph Warren, at Bunker Hill. 

Asaph Stearns, son of Abraham and Esther Stearns, married Lovisa Smith, 
of Bennington, Vermont, and settled as a farmer at De Kalb, .Saint Lawrence 
county, New York. Here their son Ozora was born, on the 15th of January, 
183 1. In 1833 Asaph Stearns removed with his family to Madison, Lake county, 
Ohio, where he continued the avocation of a farmer. But Ozora never took 
kindly to farming. When but a lad, he secretly resolved that he would acquire 
an education and study a profession. Though his parents were unable to aid 
him in his efforts to obtain an education, they gave him his time and left him to 
work out his own career. At the ao-e of seventeen he tauorht a district school, 
and was thus eneaofed for several winters ; studvino- in the meantime at Grand 
River Institute, in Austinburgh, Ohio, and at Kirtland, Ohio. 

In the fall of 1852 young Stearns went to California, by the way of the 
Isthmus, where he worked in the gold mines about seven months, when, having 
met with fair success, he returned home to pursue his studies. He spent two years 
at Oberlin, Ohio, and from thence went to Michigan University, where he gradu- 
ated in the literary department in 1858. He then studied law with James B 
Gott, of Ann Arbor; attended the first course of law lectures at the Michigan 
University, and graduated from the law department in i860. The same year 
he commenced the practice of law at Rochester, Minnesota. Being a ready 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 121 

speaker, he entered actively into the political campaign of that year, which re- 
sulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. In the fall of 1861 
he was elected county attorney of Olmsted county. 

In August, 1862, he recruited a company, which became company F, gth 
Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and of which he became first lieutenant. He 
served with this reo-iment, beino- most of the time detailed on staff and court- 
martial duty, until April, 1864, when he was commissioned colonel of the 39th 
regiment. United States Colored Infantry. Three days before the battle of 
the Wilderness Colonel Stearns took command ot his regiment, at Manassas 
Junction. With his regiment he participated actively in the campaign that fol- 
lowed. His regiment suffered severely at the mine explosion before Petersburg, 
on the 30th of July, and although among the very last to leave the field, he 
escaped without a wound. Colonel Stearns accompanied General Butler on his 
Fort Fisher expedition, and was with General Terry at the capture of that fort. 
He remained with his command in North Carolina till December, 1865, when 
he was mustered out and returned to Rochester on the ist of January, 1866. In 
the fall previous to his return, he had been again elected to the office which he 
resiened on enterino- the service. 

While he was a student at Ann Arbor, Miss Sarah Burger made application 
to the board of regents for admission to the university. A lively discussion arose 
among citizens and students as to the propriet}' of admitting women to the 
classes in the university. Mr. Stearns championed the cause of the women, and 
urged their immediate admission to all the privileges of the university. Under 
these circumstances an acquaintance was formed which resulted in the mar- 
riage — at Detroit, Michigan, on the i8th of February, 1863, — of Lieutenant 
O. P. Stearns, to Miss Sarah Burger. 

On returning from the army. Colonel Stearns entered again upon the practice 
of his profession, and, as a member of the firm of Stearns and Start, soon had a 
large and lucrative practice. In 1867 he received an appointment as register in 
bankruptcy, which added largely to office work, yet he was also activel)- inter- 
ested in the political contests of the times. 

In 1868 Colonel Stearns was a candidate for congress before the republican 
convention. The contest was triangular, and resulted, on the forty-fifth ballot, in 
the nomination of Hon. M. S.Wilkinson. In 1871 Colonel Stearns was appointed 
United States senator, for the unexpired term of Senator Norton, deceased. In 



122 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

the spring of 1872 Senator Stearns removed with his family to Duluth, and 
formed a law partnership with Mr. J. D. Ensign, who had already entered upon 
an extensive practice. 

The legislature of 1874 created the eleventh judicial district, and in April 
following Colonel Stearns was appointed judge of the new district, and was after- 
ward elected to that ofifice without opposition. He has since performed its re- 
sponsible duties to the full satisfaction of those who elected him. As a judge, he 
has the reputation of being eminently impartial, patient to listen and prompt to 
decide. He is spoken of as having a clear, logical mind, that readily apprehends 
a legal proposition. Since going on the bench, he has been more than ever a 
diligent student of the law. 

Judge Stearns believes. in and advocates the right of women to a voice in the 
election of their rulers and law makers. In this he seconds his wife, who is 
recognized as a leader among women, who seek to have eliminated from the law 
all unnecessary and unfair discriminations on account of sex. 

In Frank Moore's "Women of the War," a sketch appears of Mrs. Stearns. 
From it we learn that while her husband was in the army Mrs. Stearns devoted 
herself earnestly to explaining, illustrating and recommending those magnificent 
systems of usefulness known as the "Sanitary and Christian Commissions." 

While she fully appreciated the value of unselfish workers, she felt that tlie example of that 
noI)le corps of co-laborers ought to be made a power to incite to blessed acts of charity those who 
were taking no part in the work ; and, therefore, she took upon herself the task of arousing the 
indifferent and employing the inactive, through the influence of lectures upon our ' Soldiers' Aid 
Societies,' and upon the United States 'Sanitary and Christian Commissions.' 

Without pecuniary recompense were her labors, but not without rich reward. She so fully 
appreciated the soldier's brave devotion, that it was ever a joy to her to oft'er him her tribute of 
praise, and a double joy to find her zealous and loyal words inciting others to generous gifts and 
abundant labors in his behalf. In Michigan — where these lectures commenced, and in most of the 
large towns of that state where they were delivered — Mrs. Stearns was known as a highly accom- 
plished and earnest young woman, who had made special efforts to secure for herself, and others of 
her sex, the advantages of a complete classical course of studies in the State University of Michigan. 

Since residing in Minnesota, she has become each year better known through- 
out the state as a philanthropic worker in behalf of woman. 

The Judge is in hearty sympathy with the efforts of President Hayes for the 
pacification of states, and the purification of the public service. 

The Judge is liberal in his religious views; is not a member of any chtu'ch, 
but in belief and .sympathy is a Unitarian. He is a Master Mason, but since 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 123 

going on the bench has ceased to be an active member of the fraternity, lest his 
relations to some, as a brother Mason, might seem in some degree to interfere 
with preserving strict impartiality as a judge. 



HON. JAMES N. STACY, 

MONTICELLO. 

JAMES NEWTON STACY, member of the Minnesota state senate in 18-76 
and 1877, is a son of Ezra and Clarissa Gleason Stacy, and was born at North 
Adams, Massachusetts, on the lotli of March, 1839. His ancestors early settled 
in the State of New York, his grandfather, John R. Stacy, moving thence into 
Windham county, Vermont. Ezra Stacy moved with his family to Virginia, now 
West Virginia, when James was about six years old. There the son received a 
common-school education, and aided his father in farmincr and lumberine- 

In 1856 the subject of this notice came to Minnesota with the family, and 
settled in Franklin township, in the southern part of Wright county. The coun- 
try was very new then, and during the first three years of pioneer life James 
spent part of his time in exploring and in improving his claim of one hundred 
and sixty acres, which he afterward pre-empted. 

In 1859 he engaged in the business of surveying, following that up to the 
commencement of the civil war. In 1862, during the Sioux Indian massacre in 
Minnesota, he enlisted for one year in the ist remment Mounted Rangers, beine 
sergeant of company C, the regiment serving on the frontier of the state ; re- 
enlisted, a few months after the term had expired, in the i ith Minnesota Infantry, 
holding a lieutenant's commission in company F, and serving at the south until 
the regiment was mustered out, in July, 1865. 

Returning to Wright county, he located at Monticello, then the county seat, 
in May, 1867, and engaged in mercantile trade for ten years, closing out in Feb- 
ruary, 1877. He is now in the real-estate, money-loaning and insurance business. 

He married, in February, 1872, a daughter of John Granger, of Naperville, 
Illinois. She is an active and efficient woman, nobly filling her place in society. 

Mr. Stacy has held several important offices, being now president of the vil- 
lage council. While representing his county in the state senate for two sessions, 
he served on several important committees. During the first session he intro- 



124 ^'^^^ UNITED STATES BIOGRAPUICAL DICTJONARY. 

duced the bill, subsequently becoming a law, for equalizing the salaries of county 
officers. He has acted uniformly with the republican party, and has usually 
taken a deep interest in its success and welfare ; often represents his county in 
state and other conventions, and is an influential man in the community. His 
impulses arc all in the right direction. 

He is a Master Mason; a member of the Methodist Episcopal church; a 
superintendent of the Sunday-school, and a tireless worker In every good cause 
which calls for his assistance. 



HON. JOHN R. JONES, 

CI I A TFIELD. 

JOHN ROBINSON JONES was a pioneer in Fillmore county, building the 
' third shanty at Chatfield, and hanging out the first "shingle" in this part of 
the state. He practiced here when his field of legal conflict extended from fifty 
to one hundred miles in all directions, and when there was not a bridge spanning 
a stream in southern Minnesota. He early and thoroughly studied by observa- 
tion the geography of this part of the commonwealth, and probably no man in 
Fillmore county is better acquainted with its "nooks and corners," while its his- 
tory he has at his tongue's end. 

Mr. Jones is a native of Champaign county, Ohio, where he was born on the 
1 8th of May, 1828, his parents being Stephen and Isabel (Robinson) Jones. His 
father was of Welsh and his mother of German-Irish pedigree. His"" grandfather, 
Justus Jones, was a lieutenant in the revolutionary army, and his maternal grand- 
father was in the war of 1812-15. 

Stephen Jones was a Protestant Methodist preacher, moving to Indiana when 
the subject of this sketch was ten or twelve years oKl. He usually owned some 
land, which his sons worked. About 1843 '^'''^ family removed to Wisconsin, and 
John received a good academic education at Watertown and Milton. He read 
law at Beaver Dam with George W. Green ; early in the year 1853 went to Du- 
buque, Iowa ; finished his preparatory studies, and in the spring of that year was 
admitted to the bar at Delhi, in that state. 

Mr. Jones practiced in northern Iowa until March, 1855, and then found his 
way over uninhabited prairies, and through wild and desolate ravines and wood- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 125 



lands, to the new town of Chatfield. His law library he brought with him in a 
small trunk, soon enlarging it, and now having a choice and generous selection 
of legal works. 

Settlers began to pour in, business grew, and in two years he had an exten- 
sive and highly remunerative practice, which he still continues, operating, from 
the start, more or less in real estate. He has a high standing at the Fillmore 
county bar. In 1856 he built a flouring mill, which is still standing, in the south- 
ern part of the village, and he has always been one of the enterprising men of 
the place. 

He was prosecuting attorney of Fillmore county at an early day, holding that 
office two years, and then resigning to accept the office of state senator, to which 
he was elected in 1857. In the upper branch of the legislature he was chairman 
of the committee on state prison and a member of the judiciary committee. 

In August, 1862, when the Siou.x outbreak occurred, he was colonel of the 3d 
Minnesota Militia, and took that regiment to the frontier. Two months later he 
enlisted as a private in the volunteer service ; received a lieutenant's recruitino- 
commission ; was mustered in as captain of company A, 2d Minnesota Cavalry ; 
was promoted to major, and was mustered out in 1865. The regiment did ser- 
vice on the frontier, fighting the belligerent Sioux, and Major Jones was in sev- 
eral battles, among them those of Tah-kah-O-Kuty, on the 28th of July, 1864; 
Little Missouri, on the 8th of August, 1864; and the battle between the Bad 
Lands and Yellow Stone. One of the camps was named " Camp Jones," where 
the Indians came in the night and killed some pickets. 

Major Jones is a democrat in politics, and a Royal Arch Mason. He has 
been master of the local blue lodge (Meridian) and high priest of North Star 
Chapter. He is also past noble grand in Odd-Fellowship. 

Mr. Jones was the democratic candidate for secretary of state in 1865, and 
for attorney-general in 1877, being very prominent in his party in southern Min- 
nesota. He is a member of the Reformed Episcopal church, holding his con- 
nection at Minneajjolis, there being no church of that order in Chatfield. 

Miss A. D. Crawford, of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, became the wife of Major 
Jones on the [5th of October, 1851, and they have two adopted children. 

The Major was one of the state directors of the Central Pacific railroad, ap- 
pointed by act of congress, and is now a director of the Chatfield railroad, which 
was built by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Company, and completed 

IS 



126 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in November, 1878, from Chatficld to E)'ota, 011 the W'inona and Saint Peter 
railroad. No enterprise tending to promote the interest of this place has ever 
been projected in which Major Jones has not IkuI a hand. He is not only a town 
builder, but freely expends his energies and his money in advancing the social, 
educational and moral welfare of the community. 



HON. NATHAN R BARNES, 

SAINT CLOUD. 

NATHAN F. BARNES, son of Nathan and Lois (Jackson) Barnes, was 
l)orn in Portland," Maine, on the 26th of June, 181 7. The Barneses were 
English, his branch settling in Massachusetts; another in V'irginia. His grand- 
father, Elias Barnes, was a soldier in i 775-1 782. 

Nathan F. was educated in the graded schools and academy of Portland ; in 
1834 was appointed midshipman in the navy, and served five years. The hrst 
voyage which he made was to the island of Madeira, sailing thence to the Cape de 
Verd islands and the coast of Brazil, between the Amazon and La Plata rivers. 
Another trip took him to the Gulf of Mexico and the West India islands, a'nd 
for nine months he was in the South Sea exploring expedition, under Commo- 
dore Thomas Ap Catesly Jones. 

In 1839, at the request of his mother, Mr. Barnes resigned his place in the 
navy; read law in the office ot Hon. Joseph Howard, afterward judge oi the 
supreme court of Maine, and Henry B. Osgood, in Portland; was admitted to 
the bar of Cumberland county in 1843, ^''^^ practiced several years in Conway, 
New Hampshire. 

In 1854 Mr. Barnes became mail agent on the isthmus route from New York 
to San Francisco; resided awhile in California, and in 1S58 came to Minnesota, 
locating at Alexandria, Douglas county. He farmeil there for six or seven 
seasons, and when the .Sioux massacre commenced in Meeker. count}-, in August, 
1862, he and Andreas Darling were the only two persons who remained there, 
the rest fleeing for safety to Saint Cloud, Minneapolis and other points. 

In the spring of 1865 Mr. Barnes removed to Saint Cloud; purchased the 
" Times" and conducted it one year; was then elected city justice and city clerk, 
and these offices he still holds. 



II 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 127 

In 1866 and in 1874 Mr. Barnes was a member of the house of representa- 
tives of Minnesota, and during the first session, on the 2d of March, 1874, niade 
an able plea for normal schools, and was instrumental in securing the location 
of one of the three state normal schools at Saint Cloud, — regarded by him, we 
believe, as one of the best public deeds of his life. Certainly his constituents in 
Stearns county, and in northern Minnesota, must set an equal value on these 
services, so important to the educational interests of more than half the geograph- 
ical area of the state. Mr. Barnes was a member of the state normal board for 
several years, and consequently aided in supervising all the schools of this class, 
the location of the other two being at Winona and Mankato. 

Mr. Barnes is a democrat of the Jeffersonian (more properly, perhaps, the 
Jacksonian) school, and has never forsaken his first political love. 

He was united in marriage with Miss Mary Pepperell Sparhawk, a native of 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 24th of April, 1844. She is a descendant 
of Sir William Pepperell, the only man who was ever knighted in this country. 

Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have had seven children, and lost four of them. Three 
of them died of diphtheria in nine days, in 1853; and a son, Percival S., died in 
Salisbury (North Carolina) prison during the civil war. The only livino- son, 
Frederic P., is a student in the Saint Cloud Normal School. The two daughters, 
Margaret S. and Elizabeth W., are graduates of the same school, in the first 
graduating class, and are finely educated ladies. The three living children are 
single. The family attend the Presbyterian church, of which Mrs. Barnes is a 
member. Few men in Stearns county have a better standing or are more highly 
esteemed than Mr. Barnes. 



GUSTAVE KRAYENBUHL, 

CHASKA. 

/~^ U STAVE KRAYENBUHL, eighteen years clerk of the district court, 
^^— ^ Carver county, is a native of Switzerland, and was born in the city of 
Yverdun, Canton de Vaud, on the 22d of August, 1822, his father beino- Francis 
Krayenbuhl. He received sufficient education to become a bookkeeper, and 
filled that place in a forwarding and commission house for eleven years. 

In 1847 he left his native land, came to the United -States, and, after spend- 
ing eight or nine years as a farmer and storekeeper in Lewis county. New 



128 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

York, he came to Chaska. Here he spent a year or more in mercantile trade, 
then became a member of the Dakota Land Company, went to the Sioux valley 
in that territory, and, after being absent a year and a half, returned to Chaska 
in 1858. 

Mr. Krayenbuhl became county treasurer in 1855 I '■"-''•-' that office one year 
by appointment and two years by election, and has been constantly kept in some 
office for twenty years or more. A short time after leaving the county treasur\' 
he was elected register of deeds, and for eighteen years has been clerk ol the 
court and deputy auditor, he being a clear-headed and accurate accountant, and 
one of the most reliable and efficient officers whom the county has ever had. 
When his present term of clerk of the court shall have expired, it will make 
twenty years that he has held the office. 

Mr. Krayenbuhl is a democrat in politics, a Master Mason, and an attend- 
ant at the Moravian church. His moral character is above suspicion, and he 
is generally and highly respected. 

In December, 1851, Miss Constance Gebner, a native of Switzerland, became 
the wife of Mr. Kra)enbuhl, and of eleven children, the fruit oi this union, 
seven are living. 



HON. NATHAN RICHARDSON, 

LITTLE FALLS. 

ONE of the early settlers in Morrison county, and its first register of deeds, 
the county being organized in February, 1856, was Nathan Richardson. 
He is a native of Wayne county. New York, the son of Martin and Candace 
(Comstock) Richardson, and was born in the town of Cl)-de, on the 24th of Feb- 
ruary, 1S29. His grandfather, [onathan Richardson, came from England, and 
settled in the Empire .State. 

When Nathan was five or six years old his parents moved to Michigan, and 
settled in lh(- town of Commerce, Oakland county, taking up government land 
and opening a farm. As soon as he was old enough Nathan aided his father, 
remaining at home until of age. He received his education at the district school 
and at the Romeo Academy, teaching school five winters before leaving Michigan. 

In the autumn of 1854 Mr. Richardson came into the territory of Minnesota, 
and after sojourning a short time in Sainl I'aul, went into the valley of Rum 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 1 29 

river, and spent the winter in lumbering. In the spring of 1S55 he located at 
Little Falls, then containing little more than the site of a town, three families 
being there, living in log houses. A saw-mill was in operation, but Chippewas 
were much more abundant than white people. The first work Mr. Richardson 
did here was to go into the woods, cut the trees, and hew and haul the timber 
for a hotel, which he and his cousin, Lewis Richardson, erected. 

At the organization of the county, Mr. Richardson was elected register of 
deeds, and was therefore cx-officio clerk of the board ol county commissioners, 
which included also the duties of county auditor and treasurer. At the same 
time James Fergus was elected county judge ; Jonathan Pugh, sheriff ; and W. 
B. Fairbanks, district attorney. 

Mr. Richardson held the office of register of deeds between seven and eight 
years; then engaged in mercantile trade, and continued it till 1871, dipping into 
law books now and then, as he could command the time, hi 1872 he commenced 
legal studies with more earnestness; was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 
1876, and is now engaged in the practice of law. For several years he has done 
more or less surveying, and holds the office of county surveyor. 

Mr. Richardson was a member of the legislature in 1867, 1872 and 1878 ; was 
chairman of the committee on Indian affairs during the second session ; of the 
committee on towns and counties during the third; and was also on the commit- 
tee on public lands and several special committees. He attended faithfully to 
the wants of his constituents. 

He is a republican in politics, and has been postmaster at Little F'alls for ten 
or twelve years. He is quite active in politics, and is usually a delegate from his 
county in district and state conventions. 

The wife of Mr. Richardson was Miss Mary A. Roof, of Morrison county. 
They were married in June, 1857, and have five children, Clara, Martin M., Ray- 
mond J., Francis A. and Mary A. 

Mr. Richardson inclines to corpulency; is five feet and ten inches in height, 
and weighs two hundred and twenty pounds. He has light brown hair, a light 
complexion, bluish gray eyes, and a sanguine lymphatic temperament. He is of 
a cheerful disposition, quite social in his habits, but can easily content himself 
with a book when he has no one with whom to converse. He is no stranger to 
the pen, and during the centennial year, by order of the county commissioners, 
he wrote a long, interesting and highly valuable history of Morrison county, pub- 



I30 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

lishino- it in about a tlozen chapters in the Little Falls "Transcript." Some por- 
tions of it arc (luite rac)-. By this means, and even without these annals, the 
name of Nathan Richardson is pt-rinancntly ^nd creditably associated with the 
history of the county. 



HON. WILLIAM R. KINYON. 

OWATONNA. 

WILLIAM RILEY KINYON, speaker of the Minnesota house of repre- 
sentatives in 1875 and 1876, is a son of Samuel and Dolly (Wheelock) 
Kinyon, dating his birth at Mann\ illc, Jefferson county, New York, on the 3d of 
February, 1833. He comes from an early Rhode Island famih'. His grand- 
father, Joshua Kinyon, was in the war of 1812-15. The VVheelocks are traced 
back to Vermont ; hence his ancestors on both sides are New Englanders. 

Samuel Kinyon was a farmer, dying when William was seventeen years old. 
The latter hail to work hard in his youth, being part of the time in a dairy. He 
had a strong thirst for knowledge, and gave to books every hour of time at his 
command. He supplemented a few terms at the Union Academy, Belleville, 
with much hard study in private, with almost every conceivable disadvantage; 
ami yet at the age of twenty-one ( 1854) entered the junior class of Union Col- 
lege, Schenectady, graduating in course and delivering the valedictory of the 
Adelphic Society. The two winters before entering college, and the winter before 
graduating, he taught school, following the college curriculum all the time, and 
keeping up with his class. 

Soon after closing his studies Mr. Kinj'on came as tar west as Juneau, Wis- 
consin, where he taught a graded school one )ear, and subsequently spent seven 
or eight months in the office of the clerk of the court, reading law all the time 
he was at Juneau. He was there admitted to the bar in the spring of 1858 ; came 
thence directly to Owatonna ; was here readmitted to practice, and continued it 
until 1870. I'"our )ears earlier, in company with Jason C. Easton, he opened a 
private bank, under the firm name of Easton and Kinyon. In 1871 the institu- 
tion was changed to the First National Bank of Owatonna; Mr. Kinyon was 
elected president, and he still holds that office. He is a prudent, cautious, relia- 
ble and successful busine.ss man. 

He was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in i 868 ; chief 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 131 

clerk of the house in 1869 and 1870, and again a member and also speaker in 
1875 and 1876. He was an excellent presiding officer. 

Mr. Kinyon was originally a Douglas democrat, voting for the " Little Giant" in 
i860, and the republican ticket since the old flag was dishonored by rebel hands 
at Fort Sumter. He is commander of the Commandery in the Masonic order. 

Mrs. Kinyon was Miss Mettie Gillett, of Juneau, Wisconsin ; their union tak- 
ing place on the 31st of December, 1857. They have one son, George R., who 
is pursuing his studies at the Owatonna Academy. The family attend the Con- 
gregational church, ot which Mr. Kinyon is a liberal supporter. 



ORVILLE BROWN, 

MANKATO. 

ONE of the older class of Minnesota journalists is Orville Brown, postmaster 
at Mankato. He comes from Puritan stock, his pedigree being traced 
directly back to Peter Brown, of the Mayflower. His great-grandfather was 
Phineas Brown, of whose history nothing is known. His grandfather, Ebenezer 
Brown, was in the strife for independence. Orville is a son of Joel and Nancy 
(Allen) Brown, and was born in the town of Ellisburgh, Jefferson county. New 
York, on the loth of November, 18 12. He finished his school education at an 
academy at Belleville, in his native county; clerked in a store and farmed until 
1842; then left Jefterson county, and went to Elyria, Ohio, and in that state and 
Indiana was engaged in railroading for several years. 

In 1856 Mr. Brown came to Minnesota; edited the Chatfield " Republican" 
a few months ; then purchased the Faribault " Republican," and conducted it for 
ten years; sold out, and in December, 1868, removed to Mankato. Here he 
resumed journalism, by purchasing the Mankato " Record," which he still man- 
ages, aided largely by one of his sons. His talents as a political writer have long 
been recognized in the state. 

In April, 1S73, Mr. Brown became postmaster, and still holds the office, the 
only one, we believe, that he would ever accept. He is a republican, of whig 
antecedents, true and staunch, working zealously for more than twenty years to 
promulgate the principles of his party. He is a conscientious and consistent, as 
well as able, politician. 



132 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Brown has been twice married: first, in October, 1834, to Miss Rutli 
Earl, of Ellisburgh, New York, she bearing him four children, and dying in 1846 ; 
the second time, in June, 1852, to Miss Carrie C. Condit, of East Cleveland, Ohio, 
she also having had four children. All the children by his first wife are married, 
and none of those by the second. Nancy, the eldest of the eight children, is the 
wife of H. P. Nichols, of Elyria, Ohio; Pardon and Oren are living in Luverne, 
Rock county. Minnesota; and Christojiher C. is associated with his t'atlu^r in the 
newspaper, ha\ ing its chief management. The other four children, F"rank O., 
Arthur II., Theodore Winthrop, and Clarence C, live in Mankato. 



GENERAL ROBERT N. McLAREN, 

SAINT PA UL. 

ROBERT NEIL McLAREN, United States marshal, is a son of Rev. 
Donald C. McLaren, D.D., (a United Presbyterian clergyman, who is liv- 
ing at Geneva, New York, being in the eighty-third year of his age,) and of Jane 
Stevenson McLaren. Both parents are of Scotch descent. Mis grandfather, 
Finley McLaren, came over prior to the revolution, and settled near Syracuse, 
New York. Robert was born in Caledonia, Livingston count), New York, on 
the 8th of April, 1828; prepared for college at Cambridge Academy, Washing- 
ton county, and graduated from Union College in the class of 1851. In the 
autumn of the same year he went to Portland, Oregon ; became a partner of 
Hon. Henry W. Corbett, ex-member of the United States senate from that state, 
in the mercantile trade ; was a member of the common council of Portland in 
1853; remained there in trade until 1836, when he returned to the east. 

Earl\- in the spring of 1857 he moved to Red Wing, Minnesota, where he 
engaged in the manufacture of lumber, in the firm of Densmore, McLaren and 
Co., and in the forwarding and commission business, in the firm of Mersole and 
McLaren. While there he represented Goodhue county in the second and third 
legislatures, held in 1S60 and 1861, serving as chairman of the committee on 
banks and banking, and on other committees. 

When the outbreak of the Sioux Indians occurred in Minnesota, in August, 
1862, Mr. McLaren, with a lieutenant's commission, raised a company for the 6th 
Minnesota Infantry, Colonel Crooks, commander ; was made captain of company 





CuKiA^ 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



135 



F on the organization of the regiment, and before reaching Fort Ridgely was 
appointed major by Governor Ramsey, serving in that capacity about eighteen 
months. On several occasions, by order of General Sibley, he was detailed on im- 
portant expeditions during the campaigns of 1862 and 1863; was in the battles 
of Wood Lake and Birch Cooley, and aided in taking a number of Indian camps. 

When the 2d regiment of Minnesota Cavalry was organized by the war depart- 
ment for the defense of the frontier, Governor Swift appointed Major McLaren 
colonel of the regiment. He was in the service during three summer campaigns, 
two under General Sibley and one under General Sully, going out the last sea- 
son as far as the Yellow Stone valley. Li May, 1866, he was breveted brigadier- 
general by President Johnson. Not long afterward he was sent by the interior 
department as one of the commissioners to treat with the Sioux at P'ort Laramie, 
Nebraska, and spent most of the summer acting in that capacity. 

On his return to Minnesota, General McLaren was appointed United States 
internal revenue assessor for the second Minnesota district, and when the offices 
of assessor and collector of internal revenue were consolidated he was appointed 
by President Grant to his present office in May, 1873, ''^'^'^'^ reappointed by Presi- 
dent Hayes in November, 1877. 

General McLaren has always been an ardent republican, and quite active in 
the politics ot Minnesota. He was secretary of the state central committee for 
several campaigns, and in i860 was a delegate to the national convention which 
nominated Abraham Lincoln. 

In May, 1857, Miss Anna McVean, of Livingston county, New York, became 
the wife of General McLaren, and they have three children, Archie, Jeannie and 
Robert. 



HON. PHILO C. BAILEY, 

WA.SECA. 

PHILO CALVIN BAILEY, late state senator from Waseca county, is a 
native of the Empire State, and was born in the town of Pompey, Onondaga 
county, on the 15th of October, 1828. The Baileys were from Rhode Island; 
his grandfather was in the revolution. His parents, George and Olive (Madison) 
Bailey, belonged to the agricultural class, giving their son such an education 

as a country school could furnish. 
16 



136 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Philo learned the trade of a tinsmith, and worked at it until 1S56. when he 
came to Minnesota and settled at Wilton, Waseca county. He was in the 
hardware trade there for ten years, removinir to the new town of Waseca, on the 
Winona and Saint Peter railroad, in 1867. Here he opened the tirst hardware 
store in the place, and is the leading merchant in that line of merchandise. He 
has attended closely to his business, onl\' turning aside now and then, for a short 
time, to serve his constituents in a legislative or some other capacity. While 
a resident of Wilton he was county treasurer one term, and was a member of 
the popular branch of the legislature in 1862, and of the senate in 1877 and 1878. 
In the latter body he was chairman of the committee on corporations, and was 
on the railroad and some other committees. He is now president of the village 
board of trustees, is active in all local enterprises of importance, and one of those 
citizens who seem indispensable to the prosperity of a town. 

Mr. Bailey was originally a whig, and cherished the principles of the re- 
pul)lican party at least a year before it was organized. He has firmly adhered 
to the tenets of the party. He is a Knight Templar, and was at one time master 
of the masonic lodge at Wilton. 

Mr. Bailey has a second wife. His first was Miss Avis Slocum, of Syracuse, 
New York, a sister of General Slocum. They were married in 1857, and she 
died in 1865, leaving two children, who are yet living. His present wife was 
Miss Lurinda Dodge, of Waseca; chosen in 1867. .She has two children. 



ANDREW C. DUNN, 

WINNEBAGO CITT. 

ANDREW CLARKSON DUNN, one of the first settlers in Winnebago 
*- City, and the jjioneer lawyer in Faribault county, was born in New York 
city, on the gth of October, 1834. He is a son of Nathaniel Dunn, for forty years 
an eminent educator; the first principal of Wilbraham Academy, Massachusetts, 
and for many years professor of chemistry in Rutger Female College, New York 
city. The Dunns are an old Maine family. The maiden name of Andrew's mother 
was Charlotte Tillinghast, the family being quite prominent in Rhode Island. 

The subject of this notice was educated by his father; commenced reading 
law when about fifteen years of age, with Edward .Sandford, of New York city; 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



137 



came to Minnesota in A|)ril, 1854; was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 
that year at a term of the territorial supreme court, held at Saint Paul ; practiced 
a few months at Sauk Rapids ; then located in Saint Paul, and was there in 
practice between one and two years. 

Having an interest in a saw-mill on the present site of Winnebago City, in 
1856 Mr. Dunn came here to look after it, and to found a town, building the first 
house in the place. At that time there were not a hundred people in Faribault 
county, and only one house between this prairie and Albert Lea, a distance of 
forty miles. Strolling Indians, — Sioux and Winnebagoes, — were much more 
numerous than wdiite people. The nearest post-office was at Mankato, thirty- 
five miles north. Directly west, the nearest post-office was on the Pacific coast. 
Provisions were drawn from Independence, Iowa, a distance of one hundred 
and forty miles. 

Mr. Dunn gradually built up an extensive law practice, and has long stood at 
the head of the Faribault county bar. Mr. Dunn stands among the first in his 
profession in this state. Thoroughly learned in the law ; always a student, as 
well as a practitioner; of not only a quick, but a comprehensive mind; earnest 
in his convictions, and bold in his assertion ot them ; devoted to the interests 
entrusted to his keeping ; he has few superiors as a well equipped practitioner, 
an able advocate and a thorough lawyer. In speech, Mr. Dunn is ready, forcible, 
and yet graceful ; not only entertaining his listeners, but impressing upon them 
his own convictions. 

Mr. Dunn was secretary of the first state senate, which convened on the 2d 
of December, 1857, and finally adjourned on the 12th of August, 1858, having, in 
the interim, a recess of a few weeks. This position brought him in contact with 
the leading men of the state at that period, and he is well posted on the status 
of Minnesota statesmen twenty years ago. There were, no doubt, a few block- 
heads in the upper branch of the legislature at that time, but a large number of 
the members of that body have since made a highly honorable record in the his- 
tory of the young commonwealth. 

Mr. Dunn was chief clerk of the house in 1864, 1865 and 1866, and has held 
a few local offices. He was county attorney two or three terms, and has done 
much valuable work on the local school board. 

In politics, Mr. Dunn was a democrat in early life ; was a war democrat while 
civil strife reigned at the south, and since then has acted with the republicans. 



l-,8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, a trustee and steward of 
the same, and superintendent of the Sunday-school. 

On the 1st of January, 1859, Miss Diana Jane Smith, of Blue Earth county, 
Minnesota, became the wife of Mr. Dunn, and of si.x children which they have 
had, only two are living, Mary Tillinghast and Alice Hope. 



ASHLEY M. TYRER, 

ALBERT LEA. 

AMONG the most prominent lawyers of the younger class in southern Minne- 
^ sota, is Ashley Macomber Tyrer, a native of Erie county, New York. 
He was born in the town of Concord, on the 16th of August, 1843, his parents 
being James and Susan C. (Gates) Tyrer. His great-grandfather came to 
America as a British soldier; deserted, and not long afterward joined the Conti- 
nentals, never returning to England. The Gateses were also English, and settled 
in Vermont at a very early day, his maternal great-grandfather being one of 
the " Green Mountain Boys," aiding, firelock in hand, to gain our independence. 
Captain James Tyrer, senior, grandfather of our subject, had command of a 
company in the war of 1812-15, and was on his way to Buffalo, from the southern 
part of Erie county, when that city was burnt, about 1813; meeting fugitives 
from the destroyed village, only one dwelling-house, that of Mrs. .St. John, being 
left standing. Captain Tyrer was a very tall and powerful man ; could lift as 
much as two men ot ordinary strength, and when past eighty years of age, at 
wrestling, could ]a_\- the cluim[)ion athlete of his neighborhood (jn his back, 
James Tyrer, junior, was a Union soldier, till his health failed. He was a 
farmer, and tin; son worked very hard most of the time in )()uth — aiding his 
iatluM", attcmding, mc-anwhilc, a graded school in Buffalo, a year or two in all, and 
a few terms at the .Springville Acadeni)-, now known as the Griffith Institute. 

Our subject read law with Judge Abner Hazeltine, of Jamestown, Chautau- 
qua county; was admitted to practice in 1868, and the same year opened an 
office in Albert Lea. For nine years he was ol the well-known firm of Stacy 
and Tyrer, and was then alone till the autumn of 1878, when John Whytock 
became his partner. No man in Freeborn count) has a more extensive? ])ractice 
than Mr. r)'rer. He has a good legal mind; grasps at once all the |)()ints in 



THE UN f TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 139 

a proposition, and upon investigation, as a rule, finds himself sustained by the 
authorities. He is a safe counselor and energetic in professional business, a 
good advocate before a jury, and makes a strong argument upon all points 
of law involved in a case. 

Mr. Tyrer was clerk of the village of Albert Lea most of the time, till it 
received its city charter; was judge of probate two years; town attorney awhile, 
and the first attorney under the special enactment, extending the powers of the 
supervisors, etc. 

Mr. Tyrer is a New York or hard-money democrat, not over-zealous in 
politics, and letting nothing interfere with professional duties. His habits are 
very studious, and he is a growing man. 

His religious connection is with the Presbyterian church, of which he is a 
trustee. In his professional business, as in the other relations to society, he takes 
good care not to compromise his christian character, in which he stands high. 

Miss Fanny E. Healey, of Westfielcl, New York, became the wife of Mr. 
Tyrer on the 8th of October, 1867; and they have had two boys, only one of 
them, the elder, Arthur James, aged ten years, now living. 



HON. GEORGE W. SWEET, • 

BISMARCK. 

GEORGE W. SWEET was born at Ellington, Connecticut, on the 20th 
of September, 1823. His father was Amasa Sweet, of Uxbridge, Massa- 
chusetts, a descendant of John Sweet, a shipwright, who settled in Boston in 
1640. The mother of George was Ruena Walling, born in New Hartford, Con- 
necticut. He was raised on a farm and received his education in a common 
school, except one year in the academy at Elyria, Ohio. At the age of sixteen 
his father sold his farm and started for Ohio, intending to settle in Geauga 
county. After traveling with a team to Manlius, near Syracuse, New York, 
he, becoming fatigued with the tedious trip, disposed of his team and took pas- 
sage with the family on the Erie canal. Taking the steamer Michigan at 
Buffalo for Cleveland, they encountered the equinoctial storm after leaving Erie, 
and came near being shipwrecked about five miles from Fairport, being forced 
to put back for Erie. Abandoning the idea of going to Ohio, they settled about 



I40 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



eighteen miles east of Erie, at Ripley, New York, on a farm. At the age of 
eiehteen Georee commenced teaching school in northeast Pennsylvania. From 
Ripley the family removed to Ohio, and lived near Bellevue; and after the death 
of his mother, which occurred in 1844, George went to White Pigeon, Michigan, 
and thence westward until he reached the Mississippi, in the winter of 1846-7, 
at Rock Island. Illinois. 

in the summer of 1 84S he came to .Saint Paul, which then contained only 
about half-a-dozen small buildings, principally built of logs. Pushing farther 
up the countr\- in i S49, he went to the Winnebago agency and engaged in the 
construction of some of the agency and traders' buildings. In the s[)ring ot 
1850 he visited Sauk Rapids, where he met his present wife, the daughter ot 
Charles 11. Oakes, and was married on the ist of August, 1851. About this 
tim(' he pinxhased the present site of the town of Sauk Rapids at public sale, 
at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. 

In March, 1853, Mr. Sweet was appointed register of the United States land 
office, which office he held for four years. In 1857 he was admitted to the bar, 
and in 1859 was elected a member of the house of representatives of Minnesota, 
and was a memljer of the judiciary committee. In 1859 he was appointed bri- 
o-aile inspector of the militia, and soon after tin; breaking' out ot the war became 
recruiting officer, and recruited for the 2d, 3d, 41I1, and other regiments of Min- 
nesota Volunteers. On the breaking out of the Indian war, in August, 1862, 
he was sent by General Dole, commissioner of Indian affairs, to open communi- 
cation with Hole-in-the-Day, who had assembled about three hundred warriors 
near Gull Lake, in a cam]) hostile to the wliites. Mr. Sweet successtully accom- 
plished the mission, and agreed to a truce with the Indians, they releasing the 
white prisoners tlicn held by them, among whom were Arthur Garden and 
Major Whitehead, afterward agent of the Chippewas. This was a very danger- 
ous enterprise, and its successful performance kept the Chippewas trom joining 
the Siou.x in the terrible Indian war, where more than (wc hundred ot the peace- 
ful citizens of Minnesota were murdered and horribly mutilated. In 1870 Mr. 
Sweet became the attorney for the land department of the Northern Pacific 
railroad, which position he held until the transfer to the receiver, after the failure 
of jay Gooke. 

Mr. Sweet has been a democrat from his \()uth, but was a war democrat and 
a supporter of Stephen A. Douglas, being on the electoral ticket for I )()uglas 



THE UNITED S7\4TES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 141 

in i860. The prohibitory law, prohibiting the sale of liquors within five miles 
of the Northern Pacific railroad during- its construction, was drawn up by him 
and passed by his exertions. 

He became a member of the Episcopal church in 185 i, and took an active 
part in church matters, until about February, 1874, when he became convinced 
of the truth of .Spiritualism, and openly espoused the cause. He took the lead- 
ing part in ousting J. F. Potter from the position of state lecturer among 
the Spiritualists of Minnesota in 1876. 

He joined the Odd-Fellows in the spring of 1848, at Rock Island, Illinois, 
and the Masons in 1858. 

Mr. Sweet is five feet eleven inches in height, weighs one hundred and si.xty 
pounds, has florid complexion, long, heavy sandy beard, auburn hair, hazel eyes, 
and is rather abstemious in his habits. He is active and enereetic, with oreat 
powers of endurance, and in early life was very agile and fleet of foot, having, in 
more than one instance, made six miles per hour on a snow track for five to 
eight hours consecutively, leaving behind the best Indian runners in the county. 
He is affectionate and mild in disposition, unless aroused, when all fear leaves 
him. He has a remarkable control over Indians and the domestic animals. 

We close this brief memoir of Mr. .Sweet with one of many remaflcable in- 
cidents which opponents of .Spiritualism fail to explain satisfactorily, and which 
probably had its influence in changing the religious belief of our subject. We 
give it as related to us by the gentleman himself: 

While acting as attorney and agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and the Lake 
Superior and Puget Sound Company, the latter a land company connected with the management 
of the former, many conflicts arose in relation to lands at the various town sites. 

At Bismarck, Dakota Territory, the feeling was carried to such an extent that several plans were 
laid to assassinate me, and one night it came near being accomplished. At that time I was staying 
with a son-in-law, who lived about half a mile from town ; one evening, being in town, I was invited 
to spend a few hours at the house of a friend. I staid until between nine and ten o'clock, when 
I arose and, bidding my friend and his wife good evening, was about to depart, when suddenly 
the lady sprang between me and the door, and raising her hands, exclaimed: "Stop! I see five 
men," naming the persons, "who are secreted in a stable to shoot you as you pass them. If this 
man goes with you," pointing to her husband, " there will be no danger, as they will not attack 
two." While she was saying this, her voice and manner were entirely changed. As soon as she 
had delivered the warning, she recovered her normal condition, and said: "What foolish stuff 
have I been saying.''" The husband, however, went with me, and no attack was made. Some- 
thing over a year after this, one of the five would-be assassins became (piite friendly with me, and 
in a conversation between us I suddenly made the remark : " I knew all about the plan you and 
four others concocted to assassinate me, and at the very time." He replied: "It was a very foolish 



142 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

thing, and I am glad we failed; I advised against it, but the others overruled me." I know that 
the lady was not privy to the plot, and she believed it was a sort of phantasm, until I informed her 
that one of them had acknowledged it to me. The same man is now serving a term in the peniten- 
tiary for a felony. 



WILLIAM W. SWENEY, M.D„ 

RED wi.yc. 

Wri'Il ;i single excepticMi, the oldest plnsician in Minnesota, still in i)rac- 
licc, is William Wilson Sweney, who locatetl in Saint Paul on the iSth of 
April, 1S50, Dr. Murphy having settled there the year before. Dr. .Sweney was 
a son of Alexantlcr M. and Mary M. Kehr .Sweney, and was born at Milton, 
Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the iSth of December, 18 18. II is 
father was of Scotch-Irish and his mother of Piedmontese-Huguenot descent. 
She is still living, aged eighty-four years. When William was eighteen years old 
he moved to Indton county, Illinois, having previously obtained an academic 
education in his native town. 

He read medicine with Dr. Abrani Hull, of Marietta, I*'ulton county; prac- 
ticed in connection with him in 1848-9, and in P'ebruary, alter settling in Minne- 
sota, oi-aduated at Rush Medical College, Chicago. 

In May, 1852, Dr. Sweney removed to Red Wing, on the Mississippi river, 
then an Indian town, with an Indian farmer, John Bush, and an Indian mis- 
sionary, Rev. Joseph Hancock, — the latter still residing in Red W^ing. 

As settlers multiplied, Dr. Sweney's professional business increased, and tor a 
quarter of a century he has had as many and as long rides as any one man could 
reasonabl)- desire. He has always had the confidence of the people — never 
more, probably, than at the present time. Although he is just numbering his 
three-score years, he is well preserved, and is a hale, companionable old gentle- 
man, standing high as a ph)sician, a surgeon and a citizen. 

Dr. Sweney is a member of the Goodhue County Medical Society and of 
the State Medical Society; was president of the former in 1872 and of the latter 
in 1873. He has -written more or less on the " Climatology and Diseases of Min- 
nesota " ; a prize essay on the " Epidemics and Endemics of Minnesota" ; a prize 
essay on " Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis," and a few other subjects. 

In 1857 the Doctor was elected to the territorial legislature, serving in the last 
session before Minnesota became a state. He has also held office several terms 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 143 

in the municipality of Red Wing. His politics are "state rights" democratic, 
yet he is no disunionist. In his younger years he was quite active as a politician. 
Dr. Sweney has been married since the 29th of December, 1841, his wife 
being Maria, daughter of Richard Freeborn, of Fulton county, Illinois. They 
have two children, Mary E., wife of Benjamin B. Herbert, an attorney of Red 
Wing, and William M., a graduate of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New 
York, and a partner of his father in the practice of medicine and surgery. 



HENRY SHAUBUT, 

MAWKA TO. 

IF anybod)' in Mankato is self-made, so far as a business education is con- 
cerned, and business talent is developed, it is Henry Shaubut, who never 
went to school more than eighteen or twenty months in his life, and that was 
in the mountains of Pennsylvania, at a period when the schoolboys had to 
chop the wood for the school, and thus consume no inconsiderable part of the 
time that should have been given to books. He was born in Franklin county, 
Pennsylvania, on the 22d of March, 1822, his parents being John and Elizabeth 
(Kegerreice) Shaubut, both of German descent ; the name was originally spelt 
Schaubhut. When he was about fourteen the family moved to Richland county, 
Ohio, settling on a farm near Petersburg, now in Ashland county. In 1841 
the family made another move westward, locating at North Manchester, Wabash 
county, Indiana, where the son aided his father in clearing a farm. While there 
he also worked for other farmers at seven and eight dollars a month ; and 
tradition makes no record of his gnmibling because of low wages, or fourteen 
hours constituting a clay's work. There were no "eight-hour laws" in those 
days, and the fare was pork, hominy and corn-bread without butter. During 
one spring he cut and split five thousand rails, but, unlike Abraham Lincoln, 
who at one time did the same kind of work, Mr. Shaubut has never been Presi- 
dent, his aspirations not being in that direction. 

In 1854 he came to Mankato, completed a public-house which had the frame up, 
opened it the next year as the Mankato House, was its landlord four years, rented 
it to other parties, and became a merchant; moved into the hotel again in 1864, 

and soon afterward sold the property. Its present proprietor is Grover C. Burt. 
17 



144 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In the spring of 1865 Mr. Shaubut moved on a farm near town, which he 
still owns; worked it two or three seasons, and in 1867 opened the city bank, 
in company with Dr. William 'F. Lewis. Banking has since been his main busi- 
ness. He has half-a-dozen farms or more in the state, and in all about three 
thousand acres of land, improved and unimproved. Whatever he has, his own 
hands earned. He is a very active, shrewd, reliable business man. 

In politics, Mr. Shaubut was originally a whig, and joined the republican 
part\- when it was organized. He has a repugnance to office-holding, — leaves 
such business to persons who have a taste for it, better relishing, himself, the 
quietude of private life. He is a chapter Mason, and has passed the chairs 
in Odd-Fellowship. 

While a resident of Indiana — December 24, 1S46, — Mr. Shaubut took to 
wife Miss Hannah Collett, a native of Maryland, and they have lost three 
children, and have seven living. Benjamin 1\, the eldest son, has a family and 
lives in Mankato, and Viola is the wife of Frederic H. Samborn, of Janesville, 
Minnesota; the rest are single, — their names are Lizzie, Harry, Luella, (irace 
and Corry. 

Mr. Shaubut has light blue eyes and a ruddy comple.xion ; is five feet and 
eitrht and a half inches tall, and weighs two hundrijd and twenty pountls. In 
a double sense he is a " solid man." 



HON. JACOB A. KIESTER. 

BLUE EARTH CITV. 

JACOB ARMEL KIESTER, a very early settler in Blue Earth City, and 
one of the leading men in Faribault county, was born in Mount Pleasant, 
Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, on the 29th of April, 1S32. His par(-nts 
were David and Lydia (Armel) Kiester, who still reside in his native town. 
His father is a farmer, and was for many years chief burgess and justice ot the 
peace of the borough of Mount Pleasant. The subject of this brief menujir is 
of German lineage, as the name indicates, his great-grandparents coming from 
the old world and settling in this country before the revolution. He was edu- 
cated at Mount Pleasant and Dickinson colleges, Pennsylvania, pursuing the 
usual course of college studies, but not graduating. He commenced reading 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 145 

law in his native state; soon afterward moved temporarily to Madison, Indiana, 

where he continued his legal studies nearly two years, under the direction and in 

the office of Hon. S. C. Stevens, formerly one of the associate justices of the 

supreme court of Indiana, and was admitted to the bar at Madison in 1854. 

Returning to Pennsylvania, Mr. Kiester continued his .legal studies, having, 

meantime, his eye on the west as a promising opening for a young attorney. 

About that time the o-reat "tidal wave" of immioration was directed toward Min- 
ts o 

nesota, and in March, 1857, he came to this territory, designing to locate at Saint 
Paul. The capital removal bill passing just before that time, removing the capi- 
tal to Saint Peter, he went thither; but the removal bill proved a failure, and 
finding that property at Saint Peter was held at exorbitant figures, he concluded 
to visit the Blue Earth valley. Arriving at Blue Earth City, where he found 
only a few log houses, he located here and made this his home. 

Mr. Kiester engaged in the practice of law, being the second attorney to settle 
here. His fitness for office was soon discovered, and the county has had use for 
his services much of the time for the last twenty years. He was county surveyor 
for several years ; was register ot deeds eight consecutive years ; was a member 
of the legislature in 1865, and for the last nine or ten years has been judge of 
the probate court, receiving these several positions unsought, and performing 
their duties in a manner entirely satisfactory to his constituents. He has been 
re-elected judge of probate three times without opposition. He was for two 
years president of the board of education of the Blue Earth independent school 
district. 

Mr. Kiester's military connection has been limited to local companies organ- 
ized for temporary defense against the belligerent Indians. In early life he pur- 
sued a course of military studies one year, purposing to enter the military acad- 
emy at Drenen Springs, Kentucky, but the institution was moved to Nashville, 
Tennessee, about that time, and he abandoned the idea of going there, and went 
to Dickinson College, as already mentioned. 

Mr. Kiester was made a Mason in the Blue Earth Valley Lodge, No. 27, in 
March, 1859, and became a member of the Blue Earth City Lodge, No. 57, in 
1873, of which lodge he was worshipful master in 1876 and 1877. On retir- 
ing from that position he was presented by the brethren with a valuable tes- 
timonial in the shape of a past master's jewel, in silver, set on a gold keystone. 
He was mainly instrumental in securing for this lodge the largest masonic library 



146 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in southern Minnesota, — a library of purely standard masonic works, of which iic 
has been a diligent student, being well read in masonic history, philosophy and 
jurisprudence. 

Mr. Kiester is also a member of the Grange and of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. His religious connection is wiili the Protestant Episcopal 
church; his jiolitical, with the republican party. He was one of the prime movers 
in initiating and perfecting the organization ot this political party in Faribault 
county, consulting with Hon. |. H. Wakefield, now lieutenant-governor of the 
state, and then writing and distributing a call for a county convention which met 
in the autumn of 1857, and thoroughly organized. From that date to the present 
time he has been one of the leaders of the party in the county, and is now a 
member of the state central committee. Mr. Kiester is, however, far from being 
a partisan. He was an earnest supporter of the Union cause during the rebellion. 
He follows fearlessly the dictates of his own conscience, and gives to religious, 
educational and fraternal institutions his hearty support. 

The first teniperance society in Faribault county was a Good Templar's lodge, 
organized at Blue Earth City nearly twenty years ago. Mr. Kiester was chosen 
its first worthy chief, and held that office several terms. 

On the 2d of December, 1859, Miss Caroline Billings, daughter of Levi Bil- 
lings, one of the early settlers in Faribault county, became the wife of Mr. Kies- 
ter, and they have five children living, and have lost one child. 

He has always taken an active part in public enterprises in this locality, and 
especially, with a few others, in trying to get a railroad to this village. Their 
plans have been defeated more than once, but he has never " bated one jot ot 
heart or hope," and is about to see his long and tu'ml)- cherished hopes realizt-d, 
as a railroad is graded from Winnebago City on the .Southern Minnesota road 
to Blue Earth City, — a road eventually to connect this plact; with Saint Paul 
on the north, and Des Moines, Iowa, on the south. 

The disposition of Mr. Kiester has always been of the quiet and reserved 
type, which rather prefers that others should lead. His tastes have always been 
of a literary character, and in addition to his professional studies he is a diligent 
reader of the current sciences and literature of the times. Since early manhood 
he has been a contributor to various newspapers and periodicals, usually under 
some no)it de plume, and for a number of years has been engaged in writing a 
history of F'aribault county, to be made complete for the first quarter of a cen- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 1 47 

tury, and to be finished in 1S79. It will no doubt be a valuable work, and meet 
with a ready sale. One of the townships ot Faribault county was named for Mr. 
Kiester. 



TEUNIS S. SLINGERLAND, 

MANTOR 1 'ILLE. 

TEUNIS S. SLINGERLAND is a good example of what self-help can 
accomplish. Losing his mother when he was only eleven years of age, he 
relied on his own little hands after that date for his support. He worked on a 
farm, in a livery stable, — in short, did any kind of work that "turned up," and 
never lacked for food or clothing. He spent no money foolishly, husbanded his 
early dollars, took care of his property after he had accumulated it, and to-day 
is one of the most extensive real-estate owners and most prosperous men resid- 
ing in Dodge county. 

He was born in Cobleskill, New York, on the 2 2d of March, 1823, his 
parents being Jacob and Sophia Butler Slingerland. His paternal grandfather, 
Aaron W. Slingerland, born in Albany, New York, was of Holland descent, and 
a member of the Albany militia in revolutionary times; his paternal grand- 
mother was of German descent. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Butler, 
born in Connecticut, was of Irish pedigree, and his maternal grandmother, Eliza- 
beth Dana, was a daughter of General Dana, of Connecticut, an officer of revo- 
lutionary fame. 

Teunis received his education at the Clinton (New York) Grammar School. 
He never had a dollar, after eleven, that he did not earn. He commenced 
teachino- at sixteen, and tauo-ht three w^inters. 

Farming has been the leading occupation of his life, he following that busi- 
ness since of aee. 

For fourteen years, before bringing his family west, he spent his summers in 
Minnesota, buying lands and opening farms, largely in Dodge county. He has 
more than ten thousand acres, one-third of it or more under cultivation, and is 
increasing his improved land every year. In 1S77 he cut wheat on thirty-three of 
his farms. He has a joiner who puts up three or four farm-houses every year. 

In 1870 he brought his family from his native town to Wasioja, a little west 
of Mantorvllle, removing to the latter place two years later. His wife was Miss 



148 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Catherine E. Bouck, of Cobleskill ; married in July, i!^53. She was the mother 
of five children, and died at Mantorville on the 20th of January, 1877. Only two 
of the children, Tennis and Elbert, are living. The former is a member of the 
State University, Madison, Wisconsin ; the latter, a junior in Lawrence University, 
Appleton, Wisconsin. 

Mr. Slingerland became president of the First National Bank of Kasson in 
February, 1878, and that office he still holds, giving, however, most of his time 
to his real estate. At one time he had lands in ten Minnesota counties. There 
is no better business man in Dodge county. 

Mr. Slingerland held a few civil ofifices while in New York, Ijul nothing except 
notary public in this state, giving his time c.\clusi\cl)' to his own aftairs. He is 
the wealthiest man in the county, yet is plain and devoid of outward show, and 
has a kindly heart and an open hand for the unfortunate and suffering. 



REV. AARON H. KERR, 

ROCHESTER. 

AMONG the pioneer preachers and pastors in the valley of the Minnesota, is 
^ Aaron Hervey Kerr, the progenitor of whose family came from Scotland 
near the close of the seventeenth century, and settled in New Jersey, the native 
state of both parents of our subject, Aaron and Sarah (Peppard) Kerr. When their 
son Aaron was born, on the ist of April, 1819, they were living in Washington 
county, Pennsylvania, and there he spent his youth in securing a liberal educa- 
tion, graduating from Jefferson College in 1843. Three years later he received 
his diploma from the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; 
was pastor of Presbyterian churches at South Bend and La Grange, Indiana, 
from 1846 to 1852; then of the First Presbyterian Church, Dubuque, Iowa, until 
1856, when he settled in Saint Peter, Minnesota. There he organized a Pres- 
byterian church, anil was its pastor twent)'-t\vo years. During that period he 
aided in organizing several other churches, and did no inconsiderable missionary 
work. P^om 1867 to 1872 he served as superintendent ol public schools for 
Nicollet county. 

When Mr. Kerr commenced his labors at Saint Peter, the village, now a city 
of thirt)-five hundred inhabitants, had not more than two hundred; he organized 



I 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 149 

the church with twelve members, and it now has about one hundred and forty, 

and one of the best houses of worship in Minnesota, outside the laro-e cities, 

a stone structure, costing about fifteen thousand dollars. 

When the Hospital for the Insane was located at Saint Peter, in 1866, Mr. 
Kerr was appointed a trustee and secretary and treasurer of the institution, and 
still holds these offices. At the time of writing (August, i8;S), hehas change 
of the construction and financial department of a, second hospital of this class, 
located at Rochester, Olmsted county. He has very much of a business turn of 
mind, and no inconsiderable knowledge of mechanics, being an eminently prac- 
tical man and useful citizen. He was chaplain of the 9th Minnesota Volunteers 
for three years, — the first year on the frontier, and two years at the south. 

Mr. Kerr has a wife and three children living, and has lost four children. 
Mrs. Kerr was Elizabeth Craig, of Cross Creek village, Washington county, 
Pennsylvania, their wedding occurring on the 25th of October, 1847. Effie, the 
oldest child living, and Henry, the youngest, are at home, and Walter Craig is in 
the senior class of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 

Mr. Kerr is a stout-built man, with a ruddy complexion; is five feet and ten 
inches tall, and weighs two hundred pounds. He has a genial disposition, a 
good fund oi knowledge on general subjects, and is a pleasant converser. 



VINCENT P. KENNEDY, M.D., 

LITCHFIELD. 

VINCENT PELLETT KENNEDY, a resident of Meeker county, Minne- 
sota, since 1856, and the leading physician in this part of the state, is a son 
of Martin and Eleanor ( Pellett) Kennedy, of the farming class, and dates his 
birth on the iith of July, 1824, in Butler county, Pennsylvania. His ances- 
tors on both sides were from Ireland, his great-grandfather, Kennedy, beino- an 
early settler in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Martin Kennedy, senior, served 
in some capacity in the war of 18 12. His maternal grandfather, Francis Pellett, 
came to this country when about thirty years old and settled in Ohio. 

When Vincent was three years old the family moved to Parke county, In- 
diana, where the son commenced teaching at eighteen years of age. Havin^r 
thus supplied himself with funds, he connected himself with the Asbury Univer- 



150 THE UNITED STATES B/OG/iAPH/CAL DICTIONARY. 

sity, at Greencastle ; remained in that institution till tlic close of the sophomore 
year; taught a few more terms in ortlcr to replenish his exchequer; read medi- 
cine with Drs. Allen and Weaver, of Rockville, the seat of justice of Parke coun- 
ty ; attended a course of lectures at Louisville, Kentucky; practiced between one 
and two years at Kickapoo, Peoria county, Illinois; attended another course at 
Rush Medical College, Chicago, and graduated in February. 185 1. 

Dr. Kennedy practiced five years in Greencastle and Bowling Green, Indiana ; 
and in 1S56. thinking his lungs were diseased, removed to Minnesota, settling at 
Grecnicaf, in the southern part of Meeker county, practicing there steadily until 
the south took uj) arms against the Union. 

On the 22d of April, 1862, Dr. Kennedy was mustered into the service as 
assistant surgeon of 5th Minnesota Infantry; on the 3d of September following 
was promoted to surgeon of the same regiment, and served until May, 1865, 
when the rebels had laid down their arms. The Doctor's health was very good 
most of the time, and at one period, for fifteen consecutive months, he never 
failed to respond to a sick call. No surgeon could be more attentive to his 
duties, or be more generally respected alike by officers and privates. 

On his return to Meeker county Dr. Kennedy was appointed physician to the 
Indian post at Red Lake, in the northern part of the state, acting in that capacity 
from [une, 1865, to March, 1867. On his return, he continued in practice at 
Greenleaf six years longer, operating a flouring mill which he then owned, and a 
farm which he still owns — a farm of something like one thousand acres, nearly 
one-third of it under cultivation. 

In March, 1873, the Doctor removed to the county seat, where he is still in 
practice. The next year he attended a course of lectures at the Bellevue Hos- 
pital Medical College, New York city, and received the ad eundeni degree. 
There are few better educated i)h)-sicians and surgeons in the state, and proba- 
bly none more popular where known. The Doctor is a member ot the State 
Medical Society, chairman ot its committee on medical jurisprudence, and very 
well known in the state among the medical fraternity. 

He was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in 1861 and 
1862. and on the adjournment of the latter session went directly intt) the army. 
He was a republican vintil 1872, and has since been independent, with strong 
"greenback" leanings. He is a Master Mason, and a scarlet-degree Odd-Fellow, 
rarely, however, meeting with the latter craft. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 15 1 

Dr. Kennedy was first married on the 19th of July, 1849, to Miss Julia A. 
Rudisill, of Greencastle, Indiana. She died on the 13th of July, 1854, leaving 
two children, one of whom, Julia A., is the wife of Nimrod Barrick, of Meeker 
county. He was married the second time on the 2d of July, i860, to Miss Caro- 
line Rudisill, sister of his first wife. She has had four children, all living but 
the second born. 



HON. CHARLES McCLURE, 

RED WING. 

CHARLES McCLURE, district judge in Minnesota for seven years, and 
register of deeds for Goodhue county since January, 1873, i^ a native of 
Greenbriar county, West Virginia ; a son of Charles McClure, senior, and Martha 
VValkup, and was born on the 20th of February, 1S04. His father died in Mc- 
Henry county, Illinois, a few years ago, aged eighty-three years. His branch of 
the McClures is old Virginia and Kentucky stock. The Walkups settled in cen- 
tral Virginia. 

Judge McClure was educated at Lewisburg, Virginia, in an institution of a 
high order, under the management of Rev. John McHeleny, graduating in 1827. 
He read law with Addison McLaughlin, at Summerville, Nicholas county. West 
Virginia; was admitted to practice in 1829; remained in Nicholas county, follow- 
ing his profession, until 1833, when he moved to La Porte, Indiana, purposing to 
make that place his permanent residence, but continued sickness, on account of 
the peculiarity of the climate, compelled him to leave. In 1840 he removed to 
McHenry county, Illinois, remaining there, engaged in his profession, till 1856, 
when he settled in Red Wing. 

In 1864 he was appointed judge of the first judicial district; Judge McMillan 
going on the supreme bench, was elected to the same office the same year, and 
served the full term, resuming practice on leaving the bench. He is now filling 
the office of register of deeds, as already intimated. 

Judge McClure was originally a whig, and as such represented his party in 
the Indiana legislature in 1837 and 1838. Just before the organization of the 
republican party, he edited a paper called "The Republican," at Woodstock, Illi- 
nois, the aim of the paper being to effect such an organization — the "party of 
freedom." He was for two years treasurer of McHenry county, Illinois. He 

iS 



152 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

was a member of the constitutional convention of Minnesota in 1857; was> a 
presidential elector in i860, and state senator in 1862 and 1863. He still sup- 
ports with zeal the republican party. 

He has been a communicant in the Methodist Episcopal church smce 1833, 
and is a man of unquestioned purity of character. 

Judae McClure was f^rst married in 1830, to Miss Sarah Gibson, of Hunters- 
ville Vrrcinia. She died in i854> leaving f^ve children, four of them yet hvmg. 
His present wife was Mrs. Helen Adams, of Red Wing, daughter of John Bowen, 
of Michigan, this union taking place in 1868. John C, his only son living, is pros- 
ecuting attorney and state senator; Martha A. E. is the wife of Sidney W. Park, 
of Red Wing ; Sarah" Agnes is the wife of Alvin Wagner, also of Red Wmg ; and 
Catharine is single. 

HON. JOHN C. McCLURE, 

RED WING. 

TOHN CHARLES McCLURE, state senator from Goodhue county, is a son 
J of Judae McClure, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, and was 
born at L^ Porte, Indiana, on the ist of March, 1838. When he was two years 
old his parents moved to McHenry county, Illinois, and he received his educa- 
tion in the araded schools and Clark Seminary at Woodstock; learned the art 
of printing at Woodstock, and came with his parents to Red Wing in 1856. 
Mr McClure read law with his father in 1858 and 1859, and was admitted to the 
bar in October of the latter year, but did not commence active practice until the 
autumn of 1864, being engaged in printing-offices at Red Wing and Saint Paul 
Since entering upon the legal profession Mr. McClure has closely applied 
himself to it, and has risen steadily, his standing at the Goodhue county bar being 
highly creditable. He is an excellent counselor, a strong pleader, a hard student, 

and a growing man. 

Mr. McClure was engrossing clerk of the state senate in 1862 ; has been pros- 
ecutino attorney of Goodhue county for eight or nine years, and a member of 
the senate since January, 1878. The place assigned him on committees is the 
judiciary, state university, and federal relations. He attends very closely to his 
legislative duties, and probably no young man in this part of the state is more 
highly esteemed. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 153 

The affiliations of Senator McClure have always been with the republicans, 
and he seems to be a pet of the party in its banner county in Minnesota. Much 
as he is engaged in politics seemingly, he lets nothing interfere with his profes- 
sional business. 

He was married on the ist of August, 1868, his wife being Miss Mary F. 
Phelps, of Pine Island, Goodhue county. They have one child, Charles B., nine 
years old. 



HON. EDWIN C STACY, 

ALBERT LEA. 

EDWIN CLARK STACY, one of the commissioners to organize Freeborn 
county, and its first judge of probate, is a native of Madison county, New 
York, where he was born, in the town of Hamilton, on the 6th of September, 
18 15. His parents were Nathaniel and Susan (Clark) Stacy. His grandfather, 
Rufus Stacy, a native of Gloucester, Massachusetts, was in the battle of Bunker 
Hill, and at Cherry Valley when it was ravaged and burnt by the combined 
forces of the tory, Butler, and the savage. Brant. Nathaniel Stacy, a Universalist 
minister, was chaplain of a regiment in 1814, stationed at Sacket's Harbor. He 
wrote the memoirs of his own life, — a work of more than five hundred pages, 
published- in 1850, — and in it gives a pretty full account of the rise and pro- 
orress of Universalism in the State of New York, a movement in which he was 
very prominent. The volume is written in an easy, familiar style, veined with 
humor, and is decidedly readable. The author died about ten years ago. 

Edwin received an academic education at Hamilton, New York, and Erie, 
Pennsylvania; the family moving to Warren county, Pennsylvania, when he was 
fourteen years old. He farmed more or less till of age ; teaching winter schools, 
and securing his education entirely with his own means. In 1836 he came west- 
ward to Ann Arbor, Michigan; read law awhile with Miles and Wilson, of that 
place; finished with a cousin, Consider A. Stacy, at Tecumseh, Lenawee county; 
was admitted to the bar at Adrian, in 1840; in the autumn of that year returned 
to Warren county, Pennsylvania; practiced there (at Columbus) and at Erie 
till 1856, and then came to Minnesota, locating at Geneva, Freeborn county, 
farming there for four years. 

The year Mr. Stacy settled in this state he was appointed by Governor Gor- 



154 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

man one of the commissioners to organize Freeborn county, and was made its 
first judge of probate. He was a member of the constitutional convention. In 
i860 Mr. Stacy removed to Albert Lea, the county seat, and when not in .some 
county office, has been engaged in the practice of his profession and the real- 
estate business. He does a good deal of collecting for commercial, agricultural 
and other houses, being a prompt and reliable man. Several years ago he served 
as county auditor three terms, and county superintendent of schools one term. 
No man in Freeborn counl\- is better known than Judge Stacy, the title which 
he has had since judge of probate. He is among the leading men of the older 
class in the county, and greatly esteemed b\- all who know him. 

He has always affiliated with the democratic party ; has been quite active 
and prominent in county and district politics, and was the candidate of his party 
for congress in 1876. 

He is an Odd-Fellow; holds the office of noble grand in the Albert Lea 
Lodge, and is a member of the Universalist Society. 

judge Stacy was married on the 2 2d of February, 1842, to Miss Elizabeth 
D. Heath, of Erie county, Pennsylvania, and of four children, the fruit of this 
union, two .sons are li\^ing. Both are married and reside in Albert Lea. Uorr 
K. is a member of the city police, and Day F. is a printer and surveyor. 



JACOB K. SIDLE, 

MINNEAPOIJS. 

( 

JACOB KOONTZ SIDLE, president of the First National Bank of Minne- 
apolis, and one of the few bankers who survived the great commercial crisis 
of 1857, and the subsequent panics, is a native of Dillsburgh, York county, Penn- 
sylvania, where he was born on the 31st of March, 182 i. He is the son of Henry 
Sidle, a prominent and successful merchant of Dillsburgh, and .Susanna ;/<;y' Koontz. 
His paternal forefathers emigrated from Germany man)' years ago, being among 
the earliest settlers in Perry county, Pennsylvania, from where they afterward 
removed to York county. His grandfather Sidle was a musician in the conti- 
nental army during the struggle for independence. The Koontz family were 
also among the early German pioneers in Pennsylvania. 

The educational advantages enjoyed by Jacob consisted of what the district 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 155 

school of Dillsburgh afforded, and about six months at an academy in York. 
Leaving the latter when about twenty years of age, he entered his father's store 
and assumed charge of the business, managing it successfully for a period of 
eight years. The knowledge he acquired during this time, the business ex- 
perience he gained, were ample compensation for any loss of schooling, and 
laid the foundation of his subsequent successful career. In 1S46 he and his 
brother Henry succeeded to their father's business, and continued in the same 
place until 1857. As they were both steady, industrious, honest men, possess- 
ing good business qualifications, they were of course fortunate in their enter- 
prises, and accumulated considerable wealth. 

In 1857 Mr. Sidle's health becoming somewhat impaired, he took a trip 
through the western states. Visiting Minneapolis during this trip, he was very 
favorably impressed with its appearance and future prospects. Although but 
then a small village, in comparison with Saint Paul, yet Mr. Sidle was sagacious 
enough to see that it possessed all the natural advantages necessary to make 
it a city in the near future, and its almost unparalleled growth and present prom- 
ising outlook prove the wisdom of his calculations. He determined to cast his 
lot with this western town, and soon made arrangements which resulted in start- 
ing the private bank of Sidle, Wolford and Co. in 1857. Soon after, the o-reat 
financial crash of that year swept across the country, stranding some of the 
oldest banking institutions of the country, but through it all the house of which 
Mr. Sidle was the head stood firm and survived the shock. To euide the affairs 
of a young bank not yet firmly rooted in the commercial world, through such 
a financial storm as wrecked old and long established houses, required qualifi- 
cations of no mean order. Fortunately Mr. Sidle possessed these abilities, in- 
herited from his father, and strengthened by his mercantile experience in his 
native town. 

In 1861 Mr. Sidle, in company with his brother, who had finally consented 
to come west, started a bank of issue ; this, when the national banking law was 
passed, was merged in the First National Bank, with Mr. Sidle for president 
and his brother for cashier, and a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Under his 
able management and personal supervision, this institution has enjoyed great 
prosperity; its capital is now six hundred thousand dollars, and it transacts the 
largest banking business of any house in the city; it does all the business of 
the Millers' Association, paying out from thirtj'-five to forty thousand dollars 



1^6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

daily f(ir wheat alone; and under the presidency of Mr. Sidle, it enjoys the 
confidence of the whole community. Since coming here he has occupied a 
prominent position in commercial circles, and his reputation for high character, 
integrity and uprightness in all transactions are above reproach. In addition 
to banking, Mr. Sidle is interested in other enterprises, and is connected with 
the Minnesota Linseed Oil Company, a corporation which is doing a very large 
business and a successful one. 

Politically, Mr. Sidle is democratic in his views, but he takes no active part 
in politics, preferring to give his personal attention wholly to his business. He 
is a trustee of the Presbyterian church, and a member of the society. 

He was married an the 26th of .September, 1846, -at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 
to Miss Margaret B., daughter of Henr}' De Huff, Esq. This union has been 
blessed with five daughters, all of whom are living. 



HON. MARTIN J. SEVERANCE, 

MANKATO. 

MARTIN J. SEVERANCE, a resident of Minnesota since 1856, comes 
from an old family, who settled in Shelburne Falls, Franklin county, 
Massachusetts, nearly a century and a half ago. Martin Severance, senior, his 
great-grandfather, was in the French and Indian war (1754-60), and in the war 
for independence; and his grandfather, Martin Severance, junior, was in the 
second war with the mother country. The parents of our subject, Asa and 
Calista (Boyden) Severance, both natives of Franklin county, were living at 
Shelburne Falls when he was born, on the 24th of December, 1826. He received 
a thorough academic education in his native town, and at East Hampton, in the 
same state; giving in all about eight years to literary studies in these two 
institutions, and then commencing law studies in 1849. He read at first with 
Hon. John Wells, late supreme judge of Massachusetts; finished with Beach 
and Bond, of Springfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. 

After practicing between two and three years in Chicopee, Mr. Severance 
left his native state; located at Henderson, Sibley county, Minnesota; was in 
practice there from 1856 to 1862, serving most of the time as county attorney, 
and in the summer of the last named year enlisted as a private in company I, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 157 

loth Minnesota Infantry. After serving twenty montlis he was promoted from 
private to captain of the same company, and served three full years, being mus- 
tered out with the regiment on the i8th of August, 1865. His regiment was 
in the sixteenth army corps, General A. J. Smith, commander. Mr. Severance 
lost two brothers in the war, but never received, himself, anything more than 
slight scratches. 

On leaving the service, Mr. Severance located at Le Sueur, Le .Sueur county, 
five miles from Henderson; practiced there till 1870, and then removed to Man- 
kato, where he is still in practice, standing very high at the bar of the state, 
especially as a criminal lawyer. His oratory is of a high order, and he is very 
powerful before a jury. Few lawyers in the state practice in as many counties 
as Mr. Severance. 

He was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in 1859 ^"*^ 
1862, attending two sessions the latter year. He had just enlisted when the 
Sioux outbreak occurred, and attended the extra session of the legislature while 
a private soldier. He was one of the first to arrive at Fort Ridgely, in August, 
1862, to defend its inmates from the Sioux. 

Mr. Severance is a very independent politician. He voted for Franklin Pierce 
(1852), James Buchanan (1856), Stephen A. Douglas (i860), and Abraham Lin- 
coln (1864), and latterly has voted for the best men, irrespective of party name. 
His preference in the presidential contest of 1876 was Samuel J. Tilden. 

On the i6th of June, 1858, Miss Elizabeth P. Van Horn, of Chicopee, Massa- 
chusetts, became the wife of Mr. Severance, and they have three children. 



HON. JOHN C. STOEVER, 

HENDERSON. 

JOHN CASPER STOEVER, son of John Stoever, merchant, and Susan E. 
Stuckert, was born in Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia, on the 5th of 
January, 1824. His maternal grandfather and paternal great-grandfather were 
from Germany. In his boyhood he attended a select school, his studies being 
confined to the elementary branches; but subsequently educated himself in a 
printing-office, learning that trade with the publishers of the Germantown "Tele- 
graph," commencing at sixteen, and remaining in that oflfice till twenty-three 



I5<S THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

years of age ; he tlien moved to Chicopee, Massachusetts, and there pubhshed 
ami edited the Chicopee "Telegraph," a whig paper, for eight years. 

In 1854 Mr. Stoever came to Nicollet comity, Minnesota, and published and 
conducted the .Saint Peter "Courier" for a company one year; moved to Hen- 
derson in 1IS55, and for the same period published the Henderson "Democrat," 
but, being a republican, did not edit it. Since that time he has been in tlie real- 
estate business, when not otherwise officially engaged. He was assistant pay- 
master during llie rebellion, with headquarters at Cairo. In 1S69 Mr. .Stoever 
received from President Grant the appointment of collector of customs, at Pem- 
bina, Dakota Territory, and held that office six years, his family remaining in 
Henderson. He was. a member of the legislature from Sibley county in the 
session of 1869. 

Mr. Stoever is a Master Mason, and a member and warden of the Episcopal 
church, beintr much esteemed as a citizen. 

In December, 1845, ^liss Lucella Ludington, of West Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, became the wife of Mr. Stoever, and died at Saint Peter, in March, 1855, 
leaving one child, Elizabeth, — the wife of Charles M. Hooper, of Belle Plaine, 
Minnesota. His present wife was Miss Louisa E. Himes, of Shippensburgh, 
Pennsylvania, their marriage dating the 15th of April, 1856. 

Mr. Stoever has a farm of two hundred acres adjoining the village on the 
south, and one of the best frame houses in the place, with pleasant surroundings 
and indoor comforts and hospitalities. 



HON. CUSHMAN K. DAVIS, 

S4INT PAUL. 

CUSHMAN KELLOGG DAVIS, late governor of Minnesota, is a son of 
Hon. Horatio N. and Clarissa F. (Cushman) Davis, and was born in the 
town of Henderson, Jefferson county, New York, on the i6th of June, 1838. Both 
families are of English descent, the Davises early settling in New England. Ros- 
well Davis, the grandfather of Cushman, was one of the pioneer farmers in Hen- 
derson. Horatio N. Davis moved to Wisconsin when the subject of this sketch 
was two months old, and settled where Waukesha now stands, farming for fifteen 
years. During the rebellion he was commissioned captain in the commissary and 





i^L^ 



S-n^^-bfSSSellir: 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. l6l 

subsistence department by President Lincoln, and was subsequently breveted 
major by President Johnson for meritorious services. At the close of the war he 
returned to Wisconsin, and removed from Waukesha to Beloit, where he now 
resides. He has held various municipal and county offices; has been a member 
of the Wisconsin senate ; was president of the Beloit National Bank eight or 
nine years, and is one of the leading men in Rock county. Cushman, his eldest 
son, was educated at Carroll College, Waukesha, and in the University of Michi- 
gan, Ann Arbor, spending one year at the latter institution, and graduating in 
1857. He read law with the late Governor Randall, of Waukesha; was admitted 
to the bar in 1859, ^"tl practiced at Waukesha until the second vear of the rebel- 
lion. In the summer of 1862, when the call was made for six hundred thousand 
men, Mr. Davis enlisted in the 28th Wisconsin Infantry, going in as first lieuten- 
ant of company B. His regiment was in the army of the Tennessee, and he was 
repeatedly called upon to serve as judge advocate. He was adjutant-general 
under General Gorman no inconsiderable part of the time. At the end of two 
years Lieutenant Davis was so broken tlown in health as to be obliged to leave 
the service. 

In August, 1864, he settled in Saint Paul, Minnesota; resumed the practice 
of law, and has since followed his profession. At first he was in partnership with 
General Gorman, the firm being Gorman and Davis ; he is now of the firm of 
Davis, O'Brien and W^ilson, his partners being C. D. O'Brien and H. A. Wilson. 
He has one of the most sprightly minds, and is one of the most brilliant lawyers 
in the state. He is high authority on law points, a reliable counselor, and a clear- 
headed, powerful advocate, often achieving striking success before a jury. 

In 1867 Mr. Davis was elected to the lower branch of the Minnesota legisla- 
ture, and served one term, he being on the judiciary and three or four other 
committees. His active and powerful mind was of great service, both in the 
committee-rooms and on the floor. 

He was United .States district attorney from 1868 until nominated for gov- 
ernor in 1873, when he resigned. He was in the executive chair from January, 
1874, to January, 1876, he being the youngest man who has been governor of the 
state. He filled the gubernatorial chair with marked ability. 

His affiliations have always been with the republican party. 

The wife of Governor Davis was Miss Laura Bowman, daughter of Dr. Ruel 
ISowman, ol Waukesha, Wisconsin. They were married in .September, 1862. 



1 62 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Governor Davis is not only a close studeni in law, but a great lover of litera- 
ture, and a reader of the English and French classics. He can prepare a splendid 
literary lecture, and occasionally speaks on such subjects, but not enough to inter- 
fere with his legal profession. 



HON. HENRY A. SWIFT, 

.S'.l/.\/ I'ETIiR. 

HENRY ADONIRAM SWIFT, one of the war governors of Minnesota 
and as true a patriot as ever breathed, was born in Ravenna, Portage 
count), Ohio, on the 2^1 "f March, 1S23. He was a son of Dr. Isaac and 
Eliza Switt, and a youth of much promise. He jirepared for college at Ravenna, 
and was graduated from Western Reserve College, Hudson, in 1 .S4 2, standing 
high in his class. He spent a winter in teaching at the south, and on returning 
read law in his native town; was there admitted to the bar in October, 1845; 
during the winter ol 1846-47 was assistant clerk of the ()hi() house of repre- 
sentatives, and during the two following winters was chief clerk of the same 
body. While he was chief clerk, in 1.S4S, a "dead-lock" occurred in the legisla- 
ture, and he deported himself during that trying ortleal in such a manner as 
to receive the unanimous thanks of that l)ody. 

From 1850 to 1853 Mr. Switt dexoted himself very attentivel}' to his pro- 
fession, and to the affairs of the Portage Farmers' Insurance Company, of which 
he was secretary; in .\])ril of the last-nameil year left his native state, located 
in .Saint Paul and engaged in the insurance and real-estate business, and in 1856 
sold his propert)' in .Saint Paul and became a meml)er of the compaiu' which 
platted the site ami organized the town of Saint Peter. Here he served several 
years as register of the land office, Ix'ing in that position when he died, on the 
23th of February. i86q. 

From the time Mr. Swift settled in this state, he devoted to its interests 
his time, his talents and his energies, and was repeatedly placed in positions 
of trust and honor. In 1S61 he was elected to the state senate for the usual 
term of two years, — 1862 and 1863. Hon. Ignatius Donnelley was then lieutenant- 
governor, and on resigning his place to take a seat In congress, on the 4th oi 
March, Mr. Swifl was chosen president pro h»/. The same legislature also 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. \tx 



J 



elected Governor Ramsev to the United States senate, and in April, 1863, he 
resigned, and Mr. Swift became acting- governor. This action of Governor 
Ramsey had been anticipated, and Mr. Swift was elected president of the senate 
on purpose that he might become the executive of the state. He was in the 
gubernatorial chair while civil war was progressing, and did all he could to 
hasten the downfall of southern confederacy. Like his predecessor in the gov- 
ernor's chair, his words were of the most patriotic tone, and a fresh inspiration 
to the people. Governor Swift was urged to be a candidate for the oi^ce of 
governor at the ensuing elections, and the republicans would have been glad 
to nominate him, but he peremptorily declined to have his name go before the 
convention. Determined to use him in some way in the service of the state, 
he was reelected to the senate, and served in the sessions of 1864 and 1865. 
He was the author of the bill which passed "An act for the organization and 
regulation of independent school districts." During that term in the senate 
another United States senator, D. S. Norton, was elected, and many of his 
political friends wanted to have Governor Swift take that place, but he made 
no personal effort in that direction, preferring the privacy of domestic life, where 
he seemed to be the most contented and happy. The Saint Paul " Press," of the 
26th of February, 1869, speaking of his history while serving his last term in the 
state senate, said: "Ten words | from him | would have made him United States 
senator in 1865." 

The politics of Governor Swit't in early life were anti-slavery, though he 
was never what, thirty or forty years ago, was called an abolitionist. His free- 
soil tendencies were no doubt greatly strengthened when a young man, by a 
short residence in Mississippi, where, as we have already intimated, he taught 
school soon after graduating from college. While there, he was suspected of 
"abolitionism"; his mail was examined before he was allowed to receive it; he 
had numerous " warnings," and but for the friendly offices of a single wealthy 
planter, with whom he lived, he might have lost his life.. Thus witnessing the 
barbarism of slavery, he became more thoroughly disgusted with the s\'stem ; 
returned to the north in the spring, became an intensified " free-soiler," and in 
1 83 1 was the candidate of that party — the party which the next year nomi- 
nated John P. Hale for the Presidency — for clerk of the court. Governor 
Swift cherished his political sentiments with the sacredness that an earnest 
christian cherishes his faith, and was the incarnation of sincerity and truthful- 



1 64 THE UNITED STATES BlOGRAmJCAL DICTIONARY. 

ness. No one ever suspected him to have the slightest taint ot deniagogism. He 
was as true as steel, a man of the most solid parts, and office had to seek him, or 
he would never have had political preferment. A Chicago journalist, at the time 
of his demise, stated that Governor Swift took home the sentiment of Sallust, 
that " man should shed lustre upon his office, and not office upon the man." 

When the .Sioux outbreak in 1S62 occurred, Governor .Swift rushed, with 
other citizens of .Saint Peter, to New Ulm, shouldered his musket, and man- 
fulh' did his dui\- as a citizen-soldier. While llius protecting the assaulted 
citizens of that place, he contracttxl a disease from which he never completely 
recovered. Ihi- Mankato " Union," ot the 6th ol March, i86g, affirmed that " he 
sacrificed his life for others, and is as truly a victim ot the Siou.x war as if he 
had fallen before the Indian bullets at the battle of New Ulm." 

Before leaving Ohio, on the iith of September, 1851, Governor Swift was 
joined in marriage at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Miss Ruth Livingston, of 
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and of five children springing from this union, only 
two are living : Margaret Livingston, the wife ol Wm. M. Spaekman, of Phila- 
delphia, antl Mar)- E., wife of G. .S. Ives, attorney, of .Saint Peter. One of 
tlie deceased, Emily Morrison, was ten years old ; another, Henry .Stevenson, 
three years old, — both dying in 1864. Two years later a )ounger child, .Stella 
Selby, died. Mrs. Swift has a pleasant home in the southern part of rtie city 
of .Saint Peter, and is surrounded seemingly with every comfort ; but her 
spacious house has a vacant chair; and of her great, her irreparable loss — 

" Time but the impression deeper makes, 
As streams their channels deeper wear." 



HON. BENJAMIN H. RANDALL, 

SAINT PETER. 

BENJAMIN HOYT RANDALL is one of the landmarks of the territory 
of Minnesota, being a member of its second, third and fourth legislatures, 
when all the county on the west side of the Mississippi river, included in his 
district, was in possession of the Indians. He and one other representative, and 
one councilman, were all the members in that bod\ on that side of the river ; 
most of the members being from Ramsey, Washington and Benton comities. In 
1850 there were (jnly eighteen representatives and nine councilmen. Mr. Randall 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 165 

is a native of tlie Green Mountain State, a son of William and Deborah ( Hoyt) 
Randall, and was born at Greensborough, Orleans count)-, on the 25th of Novem- 
ber, 1823. The Randalls were early settlers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island; 
the Hoyts, in New Hampshire. William Randall, just mentioned, was in the 
second war with England, and his father, William Randall, senior, in the first 
war. Since coming- to Minnesota the subject of this notice obtained a land 
warrant for his father, for services rendered as a lieutenant on the Canada line. 

Benjamin received an academic education in his native state; started in work 
on his father's farm ; partly learned the cabinet-maker's trade ; clerked in a store, 
and read law a short time with his elder brother, Eben Randall, who died at 
the capital of Vermont, in 1852, while a member of the legislature. 

In 1843 Ml"- Randall moved westward ; spent the following winter with rela- 
tives in Ogdensburg, New York; pushed on to Illinois in the spring of 1844, 
and spent four years at Peoria and Springfield in that state, — clerking in the 
American House at Springfield and the Clinton House at Peoria, and writing in 
law and real-estate offices, etc. During this period he also visited Missouri, 
taught school there one winter, and had an eminently satisfactory touch of the 
fever and ague. In the spring of 1848 he purchased the canal boat Agnes Hop- 
kins, and traded in produce from Pekin to Chicago ; started a grocery store in 
Peoria in the fall ot that year, and in the spring of 1849 '^'^^'^ out and returned 
to Vermont. 

In October, 1849, after spending a few months in his native state, Mr. Randall 
came to Fort Snelling, and was clerk there four years in Franklin Steele's sutler 
store. It was while there, in 1850, 1851 and 1S52, that he served in the territorial 
legfislature. Durino- the three sessions he was chairman of the committees on 
schools and enrollment of bills, using his vote and influence in protecting the 
school lands as an inheritance for the children ot the state. In April, 1S53, 
Mr. Randall became sutler at Fort Ridgely, forty miles northwest of Saint Peter; 
was there with his family when the .Sioux outbreak occurred in 1862 ; afterward 
sent his family to .Saint Paul, and the next year removed them to Saint Peter, 
his home since that date, though he remained sutler till 1868; he was post- 
master there from 1853 to 1868. Here he carried on the wholesale boot and 
shoe manufacturing business iour or five years, farming all the while. He has 
about one thousand acres on the line of Nicollet and Renville counties, all in 
one body, one-fifth of It under cultivation. 



1 66 THE UN I J ED STATES BIOGRAJ'JIICAI. DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Randall has been a member of the city council of Saint Peter three dif- 
ferent times, nia\-or one term, county superintendent of schools and a member 
of the school board seven years, most of the time its president. In the n>unici- 
palitv of Saint Peter he has done much valuable work for the city, and is i)rized 
as a very useful citizen. 

In politics, he is democratic. In Masonry, a royal arch: he started Nicollet 

Lodge, No. 54, and was its master two jears. 

.Mr. Randall has been married since the 2Sth of b'cbruary, 1854, his wife being 

Miss Wilhelmina Helena Lange, of Ouinc\', Illinois. They have eight children: 

Mary Louise, the eldest daughter, is the wife of George H. Noble, of bort 

Ridgely ; the rest are single. Frank L., the eldest son, is superintendent of 

schools in Nicollet county; Benjamin M. is studying medicine in Saint Peter; 

William E. is at the Milwaukee College; and the others. Henrv R.. Richard A., 

Agnes and Helena, are pursuing their studies at home. 

Note. — Among tlie very earliest settlers in Saint Peter was William B. Dodd, a native of New 
Tersey. He came to this state about 185 i. The site of Saint Peter was owing to his sagacity, and 
the establishment of the town, to his enterprise. In the battle at New Ulm, on the 22d of August, 
1862, he served as lieutenant under Judge Flandrau, and was killed by the Indians while defending 
the town. . _ 



GENERAL JAMES H. BAKER, 

MANKATO. 

J.AMES BEATON BAKER, surveyor-general of Minnesota, and son of Rev. 
Henry Baker, a Methodist preacher, and Hannah Heaton Baker, was born in 
Monroe, Butler coimty, Ohio, on the 6t1i of May, 1829. His father was a ph)- 
sician, as well as a minister, and practiced the former profession during the major 
part of his mature years. He was a gentleman of gciod literary attainments, and 
died at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1864, while serving as chaplain of a regiment. 
The grandfather of James was a Protestant minister, and left Germany on account 
of his religious views. His maternal great-grandfather, David Heaton, fought tor 
American independence, and was in the battles of Germantown, Princeton, Tren- 
ton and others. His maternal grandfather, James Heaton, was a cpiartermaster, 
serving with General Harrison in the second war with the mother country. 

When James was about two years old the family moved to Lebanon, in an 
adjoining county, where, in due time, he prepared for college, entering the Ohio 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 167 

Wesleyan University, at Delaware, in 1847, 'I'ld graduatino- with the class of 
1852. Before entering the university, and while pursuing his studies, he exhibited 
talent and scholarship of a superior order, and on finishing his studies at the uni- 
versity he received the Latin honors of his class. He now engaged in teaching, 
and for a short time was at the head of a female seminary in Richmond, Indiana. 

In 1S53 Mr. Baker purchased the " Sciota Gazette," at Chillicothe, one of the 
oldest newspapers in Ohio, and had the exclusive management of the paper. So 
strong and forcible were his editorials, that a year or two later, on the organiza- 
tion of the republican party, his writings contributed materially to the growth 
and interests of the infant party in southern Ohio. .So thoroughly were his ser- 
vices appreciated, that in 1855, when only twenty-six years of age, he became the 
republican candidate for secretary of state, Hon. -Salmon P. Chase heading the 
ticket, the two canvassing the state together, and winning at the October election. 

At the expiration of his term of office, in 1857, Mr. Baker executed a purpose 
long entertained of removing west, and came to Minnesota. The next year he 
was the successful republican candidate for the same state office that he had held 
in Ohio. He was reelected, and was still serving as secretary of state when civil 
war broke out at the south. Feeling it his duty to go into the military service, 
he resigned; enlisted, and received a colonel's commission from Governor Ramsey, 
took command of the loth Minnesota Infantry, and served under General Sibley 
in the campaigns of 1862 and 1863 against the Sioux. 

On returning from the campaigns on the frontier, Colonel Baker was ordered 
to the south ; reported at Saint Louis, Missouri ; was assigned to that post by 
General Schofield, and so faithfully and with so much executive ability did he dis- 
charge his duties, that his command was soon enlargred to that of a district. He 
was subsequently appointed provost-marshal of the department of Missouri by 
Secretary Stanton, and in that responsible position he served until the close of 
the war. For his fidelity in this important trust, which virtually made him mili- 
tary governor of Missouri, he was breveted brigadier-general of volunteers. 

Peace being restored, General Baker was mustered out of service on the 31st 
of November, 1865, and appointed register of the consolidated land offices at 
Booneville, Missouri, and at the end of two years resigned. He returned to his 
farm in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, intending to enjoy the ([uiet of rural life ; 
but in 1 87 1, after declining to accept public positions of trust offered him, Presi- 
dent Grant tendered him the imiiortant office of commissioner of pensions, and 



loS THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

he entered upon its duties on the first day of June of that year. " To the dis- 
charge of these duties," said a writer for an eastern periodical in 1874," he brought 
all the forces of an energetic nature, and the powers of a well-balanced, vigorous 
and analytical mind, with a steadfast devotion to his trust. A soldier himself, 
in a.ssuming the chair of commissioner of pensions he felt that every disabled 
soldier, and ever\- widow and orphan of a deceased comrade, became his ward, 
whose interests, under his oath of office, he was not only to protect, but to care- 
fully watch over." 

I hrouL^h tile instrumentality of General Baker, the pension laws, formerly 
scattered here and there through different volumes of the statutes, were compiled 
in one law and ver}- much simplified. He resigned this office on the 31st of May, 
1875, having served a full term of four years, and President Grant tendered him 
the office of surveyor-general of the state, which he now holds, having his home 
in Mankato. While holding this office, General Baker has contributed more 
largely than all other influences to bring into notice the north shore of Lake 
Su]jerior. His letters from that region have attracted wide attention. 

On tlie 25th of .September, 1852, Miss Rose R. Thurston, daughter of Reu- 
i)en H. Thurston, then of Delaware, Ohio, now of Mankato, Minnesota, became 
the wife ot General Baker, and they have two sons, both promising young men. 
Arthur is in the ])ost-office department at Washington, and Harr)' E. is a student 
in the law department of the Michigan State University. Mrs. Baker died in 
Washington cit)-, on the 21st of March, 1873. She was a woman of the noblest 
qualities, and in the dedication to a poem entitled "A Song of Friendship," pub- 
lished in book lorm in 1877, the General lJa\'s a beautiful tribute to her worth 
and memor\-. The dedication opens as follows: 

" To thee, bright captive of the sky. 
To thee these lines belong; 
I'ull oft I waft to thee a sigh. 
And now ascends my song. 

^Vhen first we met, there in thine eyes 

One path before us lay ; 
We trod its tnrf, till to the skies 

Vour feet were turned away. 

You took that light which made us glad, 

That heart which we adore ; 
And yet the loss which made lis sad 

Illumined heaven more." 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 169 

The dedication ends as follows — lines not unworthy of Tennyson : 

" Shod with the sandals of the morn, 
She crossed the blooming sky, 
And on the hills where love was born 
She rests her feet for aye. 

Vein well with fire these lidded eyes, 

O Lord ! that I may see 
Through all the radiance of the skies 

That soul which lived for me ! " 

The poem here mentioned, and so sweetly and tenderly dedicated to the 
memory of Mrs. Baker, is an elegy on the death of a very dear friend — a poem 
full of pathos and warm with poetic fire — probably the finest contribution to this 
department of literature yet made by a Minnesota minstrel. We make a single 
extract : 

"And now no longer comes my Grecian friend, 
In high dispute, a sullen day to end ; 

The winter sharp is doubly now a-cold, 
And dead delights tell how the heart grows old. 
No more those grand repasts, with Attic fire; 
No more those dreams which all good hearts inspire; 
That cheerful hour hath heaven put away. 
And I must reck my life some other way. 
But yet rejoice ! my friend, he is not dead ; 
Like Lycidas, he lifts his drooping head, 

'And tricks his beams ' in some new fountain high, 
And ' flames in th' forehead of the morning sky.' 
His lordly life went out with calm content ; 
On glory's hills he pitches now his tent. 

The lusty passions of this wayward world. 
Like captured flags, around his feet are furl'd ! 
O noble heart, arise ! teach me the ways 
That gave you strength, and won enduring praise." 

We find in the published proceedings of the grand lodge of Ancient, Free and 
Accepted Masons oi Minnesota, that during the session a "lodge of sorrow" was 
held in January, 1877, and an address was delivered by General Baker on the 
death of Adjutant J. C. Braden, of the loth Minnesota Infantry — adjutant while 
General Baker was colonel. Captain Braden was the grand master of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity of Minnesota. From this beautiful tribute to the memory of a 
brother Mason we make a very brief extract, to show the compactness and terse- 
ness of the General's prose style : 



I/O THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

A dying friend can leave no treasure more sacred than a spotless reputation ; and if I were 
asked to-night to name one in our midst who combined within his personal character all the graces 
of truth, sincerity, toleration, honor and personal inirity which enrich true manhood, I could mention 
no one who excelled our deceased grand master in them all. Without ostentation, without fame, he 
moved in the circle in which his life was cast, with that distinctive character, and those personal 
(|ualities of unfeigned honesty and incorruptible integrity, which mark the upright man. That spirit 
of friendship and that love of virtue which made him the embodiment of the best ideal of Masonry, 
were the principles which formed and dominated his life. T/ie character of a good man and a true 
Mason grows, like the Temple in Jerusalem, without the sound of a hammer. Character is a house not 
made icith hands. A good life forms and expands as noiselessly as a flower unfolds in its beauty and 
fragrance. 

At the conclii.sion of his eulocry on this occasion he read an original poem, 
which has been copic;d into most of the Minnesota papers, and has had a wide 
circulation in otlier parts of the country. It opens as follows: 

" To one by one we wave the last adieu. 
And one by one we hear the last tattoo; 
No morn shall come tasbring again the day 
That breaks thy sleep with ringing reveille ! 
No trumpet's clang the marshall'd ranks shall call, 
Till from the sky that trump that summons all ! 
No more the guard his weary rounds shall tread. 
For angels watch the bivouac of the dead ! " 

General Baker is a liberal contributor to the newspaper and periodical press, 
especially of his adopted state, treating of literary subjects only, and always writ- 
ing with marked elegance, as well as vigor. On the " stump" he is very forcible ; 
there only he " meddles with politics," and there he has but few compeers in the 
state. In the campaign of 1877 he made many most popular speeches on the 
republican side, and of one of them fifteen thousand copies were circulated as a 
campaign docinnent. He is a " liard-money " man, and to show the richness and 
beauty ol his illustrations, we make an extract Irom the speech just referred to, 
showing the value of coin as money: 

Let me illustrate the value of coin as money. A few years since, my friend, Bishop Whipple, wiio 
had just returned from Spain, presented me with a silver Moorish coin. It had been issued more 
than a thousand years ago. It bore upon it the faded stamp of a sovereign and the insignia of an 
empire, which alike had been dead for a thousand years. Ten centuries have come and gone since 
the authority which issued that coin had an existence in Spain ; their very names have ceased to be 
recorded, and every insignia of their authority has mouldered into the dust of oblivion ; and yet that 
coin is just as good, and has just the same moneyed value to-day, as if the most potent government on 
earth was behind it. Who would care to know of the numberless floods of paper money which have 
come and gone through that period of a thousand years, like leaves upon the trees.' But while these 
rags have rotted, my Moorish coin survives with the almost conscious immortality of honest money. 



w 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 171 

The writer already quoted thus speaks of the appearance, etc., of our subject : 

In person. General Baker is about six feet in height, and symmetrically proportioned. He moves 
with a quick, nervous, soldierly step, indicative of his character, — courteous in demeanor, affable in 
conversation, giving close attention to the minutest detail when business is introduced. He is some- 
what incisive in his speech, and im]:)ulsive in action. His head is small and well proportioned, and is 
lield firmly erect. His quick-moving hazel eyes betoken restiveness, and his countenance, when ani- 
mated, indicates great intelligence. In repose, his face has a quiet, thoughtful, scholarly appearance. 



HON. HORACE EVERETT BARRON, 

FARItSAVLT. 

THE Barron family settled in New England during the early part of the 
eighteenth century. William Barron, the great-grandfather of Horace Ev- 
erett Barron, was a scout during the French and Indian war, and commanded a 
company from Lyndeboro, New Hampshire, in the revolutionary war. The roll of 
his company, who first used their flint-locks at Bunker Hill, is now in the archives 
of the state department at Concord, New Hampshire. He lived and died at 
Lyndeboro. His family originated from Chelmsford, Middlesex county, Massa- 
chusetts. 

Micah Barron, his eldest son, born at Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, adjoining 
Chelmsford, in 1763, moved to Bradford, Orange county, Vermont, in 1788; was 
an enterprising lumberman and farmer, and for twenty-three years was deputy 
sheriff or sheriff of Orange county. He was the man who was sent to Canada 
to arrest Stephen Burroughs, the notorious counterfeiter and desperado. Micah 
Barron was at one time colonel of a regiment ot the state militia, and rose to the 
rank ot briCTadier-ofeneral. 

William Barron, son of Micah and father of Horace, was less than a year old 
when his parents moved to Bradford. The maiden name of his second wife, 
mother of Horace, was Hannah Davis Brooks, whose eldest brother, Samuel 
Brooks, died while a member of the Canadian parliament, and his youngest son 
is now a member of the same parliament. William Barron, like his father, had a 
taste for military affairs, and rose to the rank of colonel. He died in Hartford, _ 
Connecticut, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, as we gather from the " History 
of Bradford, Vermont," whence other facts are derived. President Harrison ap- 
pointed Colonel Barron United States marshal for the district of Vermont. 



172 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Horace M Barron was born in Bradford, on the 21st of Marcli, 1826, spend- 
ing his boyhood on his father's farm, and completing his education at the Brad- 
ford Academy. When about eighteen he joined an engineering party, which 
made the first survey of the railroad from White River Junction to Derby line, 
and was thus engaged for four years, or till the road was completed and the cars 
ran from White river to W^ells river. 

In October, 1850, Mr. Barron pushcni westward to Chicago, and for five years 
traveled for wholesale houses in that city, Ills trips extending over Illinois and 
portions of Michigan and Indiana. In October, 1855, he came to b'arlhaull, tlien 
an embryotic village, with several log cabins and two or three frame houses. 
During the winter following he purchased the site on which his hotel now stands, 
and made preparations to build, which he did the next spring. Here, with the 
exception of two years, he has been the lamllord of the Barron House since 
1856, and is one of the best known men of his class in the state — best and favor- 
ably known, being kind, obliging and considerate, and regardful of the comforts 
of his guests. His elder and only brother, William Trotter Barron, a graduate 
of the University of Vermont, and a lawyer in Cliicago for several years, and 
judge of Cook county one or two terms, was killed in 1862, b)- a collision on the 
railroad at Kenwootl station, near the southern line of Chicago, and for two 
years our subject was engaged in looking alter his property, returning to his 
hotel in 1864. 

In 1870 Mr. Barron built the stately stone addition to his hotel, forty-four by 
eio'hty feet, and three stories above the basement, leaving the old frame building- 
still standing, using it for office, sample-rooms, wash-room, etc. He now has one 
of the most spacious, airy and inviting public-houses in central Minnesota. 

Mr. I>arr(Mi has held a few offices in the municipality of Faril)ault, and in 1874 
was a meml)cr of the legislature, being chairman of the committee of ways and 
means. He has been a director of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the 
Blind, located at Faribault, for ten or eleven years, and has been president ot the 
board most ot the time. 

In politics, he was formerh' a whig; latterl\- has been a republican, occasion- 
ally attending congressional and state conventions — more to oblige others than 
to please himself He is a strong partisan, more ready to work for the official 
elevation of friends than ot himsclt. 

Mr. Barron lived a single life till the 22d of b'ebruary, 1876, when he became 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 173 

the husband of Miss Kate W. Gray, daughter of the late James L. Gray, many 
years a merchant on North Clark street, Chicago. Tliey have had three children, 
(one pair of twins,) and lost all of them. They attend the Episcopal church. 



FRANCIS H. MILLIGAN, M.D., 

WABASHA. 

FRANCIS HENRY MILLIGAN, twenty-five years a practicing physician 
and surgeon in Minnesota, is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; a son 
of Edward and Louisa Fisher Milligan, and was born on the 8th of December, 
1830. He is of Irish and Pennsylvania-German descent. When he was five 
years old his father moved to Saint Louis, and founded the Missouri "Democrat." 
Francis received his literary education in the graded and select schools of Saint 
Louis; read medicine with Francis G. Smith and James M. Allen, Philadelphia, 
and received his diploma from the Jefferson Medical College, of that city, in the 
class of 185 I, a few months before he was of age. Dr. Milligan practiced in Saint 
Louis from May, 185 i, to September, 1853, ''■'''cl during the autumn of the latter 
year settled in Wabasha, practicing here steadily except when in the service of 
his country. 

In 1861 he was appointed assistant surgeon of the 3d Minnesota Infantry, 
and served in that capacity in Tennessee and Kentucky, resigning the ne.xt year. 
In 1864 he was appointed surgeon of the loth Minnesota, and was- mustered out 
with the regiment at Fort .Snelling in September, 1865. 

.Since the close ol the civil war, though doing general practice, the Doctor has 
made a specialty of surgery, often going a great distance to attend to difficult 
cases, in Wisconsin as well as Minnesota. He was the first surgeon in Minne- 
sota to perlorm the ex-section of the hip-joint, and twice has performed gas- 
trotoni)' for intestinal obstructions. His reputation as a surgeon is extensive 
and excellent. 

Dr. Milligan is one of the original members of the Minnesota State Medical 
Society, and was its president in 1876. He also aided in organizing the Waba- 
sha County Medical .Society, in 1870, and has been president one term. For 
twenty-eight years he has been a contributor to medical periodicals, mainly on 
surgery, and some of his papers have been copied into the British periodicals. 



174 '^^^^^ UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In 1876 he wrote, for the centennial 4th of Jul\-, a neat little history of Wabasha 
village. The name is Indian — a Sioux chief — meaning Yellow Leaf, and should 
be spelled with a hnal w. 

In the territorial days of Minnesota, when people and patients were scarce. 
Dr. Milligan served one term as sheriff of the county, under appointment of his 
political as well as personal friend, Governor Gorman. The Doctor assisted in 
oro-anizing the first school district in Wabasha county, and served several years 
on the school board. He is quite public-spirited, and makes himself useful in 
many of the relations of life, being a highly respectable citizen. He grew u[) in 
the Protestant Episcopal church ; is still a worthy member of that body, ami lib- 
eral in church and benevolent matters. 

Dr. Milligan has had two wives. His first wife was Miss Lucy A. Bailly, of 
Wabasha, daughter of Alexais Bailly, an old Indian trader; married in 1853. She 
died childless, in 1865. His present wife was Miss Sarah D. Abrahams, daugh- 
ter of William C. Abrahams, of Steubenville, Ohio; chosen in 1866. She has 
had four children, only two of them now living : Dora Belle, aged ten, and William 
Francis, aged eight years. 



HON. ROBERT I. SMITH, 

AUSTIN. 

ROBERT ISAAC SMITH, late state senator from Mower county, is a 
native of Rensselaer county, New York, and was born on the 17th of 
November, 1838, his parents being Robert and Millison (Townsend ) Smith. He 
is of remote German descent, and has good patriotic blood in his veins, his great 
grandfather, Jacob Smith, being a lieutenant of dragoons under Cieneral Gates, 
during the revolution. Robert Smith was a builder in earl\- life;, and is still 
living, being engaged in farming and the real-estate business, his residence being 
near Mendota, Illinois. 

The subject of this notice was educated at Sand Hill Academy, New York, 
under Professor Schram, of Yale College, and after leaving school was engaged 
for five years in teaching at Ripon, Wisconsin, and Mendota, Illinois, and in 1857 
came to Rochester, Olmsted county, in this state, devoting some time to real estate. 

In i860 Mr. Smith went to the mineral regions in and near Denver, and 
spent a year or more in mining; returned in 1862, and enlisted in company F, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 175 

9th Minnesota, as orderly sergeant, and gave one year to the service of his coun- 
try. At the end of this time he returned to Minnesota; settled in Austin, and 
has since been engaged in real estate and photography. He is a successful 
business man, and in independent circumstances. 

He was a member of the state senate in 1876 and 1877, being chairman of 
the committee on internal improvements, and served also on the committees on 
railroads and insane asylum. 

The politics of Mr. Smith are republican, and he is among the leading men 
ot his party in Mower county. He was a member ot the state central committee 
in 1877, and is known among politicians all over the state as a straightforward, 
upright man, of sound judgment and good business capacities. 

The wife of Mr. Smith was Mary A. Piper, ot Austin ; married in September, 
1868. 



DAVID A. SECOMBE, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

DAVID ADAMS SECOMBE, lawyer, is a native of Milford, New Hamp- 
shire, and dates his birth on the 25th of May, 1827. His parents were 
David and Lydia (Adams) -Secombe. 

The first of the Secombe family, in this country, was Richard, who emigrated 
from the west of England, and settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, about the year 
1660; his third son was John, whose third son was Simmons, whose first-born 
was called John; this John, the grandfather of our subject, in 1762 removed to 
Amherst, New Hampshire, where was born David, in 1787; the latter afterward 
moved to Milford, where he enofag-ed in farmino-. 

David A. attended the public schools of Milford, and later fitted for college 
at the academies of Hancock and Pembroke, New Hampshire. In 1847 he en- 
tered Dartmouth Colleee, but did not graduate, as he discontinued his studies 
while yet in his junior year. Leaving college, he went to Manchester, New 
Hampshire, and studied law during the next year with the Hon. Daniel Clark, 
ex-United .States senator, and at present United States district judge. Being 
dependent upon his own resources, Mr. .Secombe did not attempt to practice in 
his native state, well knowine it would be useless to contend against the old 
fogies, who at that time did not believe in giving a young man a chance, until 



176 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

death made room for him in their ranks ; he concluded the west was the 
only place for him, and he immigrated to this land of promise in June, 1851, 
settling at Saint Anthony, Minnesota. Here he was admitted to the bar in 
July, 1852, since which time he has followed his profession in this ]ilace — now 
Minneapolis. Mr. Secombe has practiced alone, with the e.xception of about two 
years, when he was in company with John \V. North. 

He was elected a member of the state constitutional convention which met 
at Saint Paul in 1S57; was a Tepresentative from Hennepin count)-, in the state 
legislature, in 1859 and i860, and was a delegate to the national republican con- 
vention which n(jminated the immortal Lincoln, at Chicago, Illinois, in the latter 
year. In 1871-72 -he was county attorney of Hennepin county. 

Since the formation of the republican party Mr. Secombe has acted with them; 
during the first years of its existence, and through the war, he took an active and 
interested part in politics, but of late years he has held aloof as much as possible, 
being much averse to the system of machinery now in vogue. With the excep- 
tion of the time spent in performing his duties in the offices mentioned, Mr. 
Secombe has devoted his whole attention to his profession. He has had a large 
experience, and is well informed on all (piestions oi law ; stands high at the bar, 
and enjo\'s an enviable reputation for honesty and integrity. 

He was married at Saint Anthony, on tlie 27th of February, 1855, to Mrs. 
Charlotte A. Eaton, daughter of \Vm. K. Eastman, of Conway, New Hampshire. 
They have three children, one daughter and two sons. 



NATHAN M. BEMIS, M.D., 

farhlwi.t. 

NATHAN MARVIN BEMIS, the first physician to permanently settle in 
Faribault, was born in Whitingham, Windham county, Vermont, on the 
25th of March, 182 1, his parents being James Gilbert and Stata Smith Bemis. 
His paternal great-grandfather came from England, and his grandfather, Edmund 
Bemis, was an officer in the continental army. 

James G. Bemis was a farmer, with whom the son remained until eighteen \ears 
of age. At this period in life, with his heart set on biding a physician, and with his 
father's consent, he commenced reading medicine with Dr. Horace Smith, of Wil- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



1 1 



mington, a town adjoining Whitingham, in the same county; attended lectures 
at the Vermont Medical College, Woodstock; graduated in May, 1842 ; practiced 
three years at Shutesbur\\ Franklin county, Massachusetts; nine or ten at Cum- 
mington, Hampshire county, same state, and in May, 1855, settled in Faribault. 
At that date only one frame house — that of Alexander Faribault, for whom the 
town was named — was completed; others were rising, and a few log cabins had 
been up a short time. Indians were abundant, and Dr. Bemis was the physician 
ot two chiels of the Si(jux nation, Papa and Red Legs. His rides, especially dur- 
ing the hrst ten or fifteen years, extended up and down the valley of the Cannon 
river and up the Straight (which here feeds the Cannon) a long distance. Proba- 
bly few men ot his profession in the state have ridden more miles than he. In 
the territorial days of Minnesota, road or no road, regardless of the state of the 
weather, he promptly obeyed every summons, near or remote, whether to a wig- 
wam or a white man's cabin, facing the perils of swollen streams, blinding snow- 
storms, or a fearfully depressed thermometer. Latterly his professional circuits 
have ordinarily been limited to the city and adjoininL;' towns, younger men taking 
the longer rides. He has been successtul pecuniarily as well as professionally, 
and fortunately can aflord to curtail his business. Though quite elastic for a man 
approaching his three-score years, and though having no deep wrinkles on his 
face, yet his long, almost snow-white beard, and rapidh' whitening head, indicate 
that "sap-consuming winter's drizzling snows" are not only falling, but thicken- 
ing in their fall. He does just enough business to aftord him a healthful amount 
of exercise. His spirits are buoyant, and his social habits admirable. 

In early manhood Dr. Bemis was an abolitionist of the milder type, casting 
his first presidential vote in 1844, for James G. Birney. Of late years he has 
voted the republican ticket ; has never been an office-seeker, and has strictly re- 
fused to accept anything of the kind of a political nature. Among the Freema- 
sons he is a Knight Templar, and has been master ot the Blue Lodge twice, and 
a noble grand in Odd-Fellowshi]) three times. 

Dr. Bemis has been married since the loth of Februar\-, 1842, his wife being- 
Miss Emeline H. Adams, a native of Barre, Massachusetts, living at the time of 
her marriage at Heath, in the same state. They have had five children, all yet 
living but George O., who died when only three years old. The four living are 
all married but Ella j. ; Augusta E. is the wife of William T. Kerr, a commercial 
agent, residing in Davenport, Iowa; Joseph G. is a physician, educated in the 



I/S THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION Ah 

College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, and practicing m laribault ; 
and Mary C. is the wife of Henry C. Prescott, agent for Seymour, Sabin and Co., 
manufacturers of the " Minnesota Chief" threshing machine at Stillwater, Minne- 
sota, their home being at Faribault. 



COLUMBUS STEBBINS, 

HASTINGS. 

COLUMBUS STEBBINS, twenty-one years a journalist in Minnesota, be- 
longs to the class of self-made mtn. With a very ordinary common-school 
education, at twenty-one he entered a printing-office as its proprietor; learned 
the art of printing; edited his own paper from the start, and for thirty-two years 
was a publisher, never missing a week's issue in that period, except during the 
three or four weeks that he was engaged in moving his newspaper from Indiana 
to Minnesota. 

Mr. .Stebbins, a son <jt Alanson and Elizabeth (Shafer) Stebbins, was born in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 30th ot April, 1825, and paternally springs from an early 
Massachusetts family. His father was born in Monson, Hampden county. His 
ancestors on his mother's side were engaged in the Indian wars in New England. 
The Shafers, only two generations back, were from Germany. 

\\'h(,'n Columbus was two years old the family moved to Hamilton, Butler 
county, twenty-five miles from Cincinnati, and there he was reared on a farm. At 
nineteen years of age he removed to Columbus, Bartholomew county, Indiana, 
there spending two years in farming. In 1846 he purchased the " Spirit of the 
West," and learned the printer's trade; changed the name of the paper to " Inde- 
pendent " alter three or four years; associated with him [. Fred. Meyers, now 
postmaster at Uenison, Iowa; remained there until the spring of 1857, and then 
removed, paper and all, to Hastings, dating the first number here on the 25th of 
July. After managing it alone for ten or eleven years, he associated with him, 
in its publication, Irving Todd, consolidating, and changing the name to "Ga- 
zette." This partnership continued until the 4th of March, 1878, when Mr. .Steb- 
bins disposed of his interest in the paper to Mr. Todd, who is now its sole pro- 
prietor. 1 1 has been and is a journal of much infiuence. 

Mr. -Stebbins is a republican, of whig antecedents, and attended the state con- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 17c) 

vention in Indiana which organized the republican party, — one of the first state 
conventions of the I-:ind in the country. He was chairman of the republican state 
central committee of Minnesota in 1868, and has been an efficient worker for the 
party since it had an existence. He is chairman ot the republican central com- 
mittee in the first judicial district. 

Just after the civil war closed he spent two winters at Washinoton, District 
of Columbia, as clerk in the house department. 

Mr. Stebbins is a blue-lodge Mason, and an attendant at the Baptist Church, 
where his wife, who was Miss Mary E. Lemen, of Ridge Prairie, Illinois, belongs. 
She is a daughter of Rev. James Lemen, a pioneer Baptist preacher of that state. 
Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins were joined in wedlock on the 2d of November, 1858, and 
have had three children, all daughters, — two of them, Kate L. and Jessie Maud, 
yet living. Mary Ellen, the first-born, died at the age of twelve years. 

Mr. Stebbins has lived a sort of pioneer printer's life. When he started in the 
business in Indiana that part of the state was only partially settled, and when he 
came to Minnesota it was a territory. The year after he located at Hastings a 
state constitution was adopted, and the sovereignty of the state was recognized 
by congress. Here for twenty years, with voice and pen, he strove manfully to 
build up the young commonwealth, which will not be likely to forget his services. 

Since the above was in type the news comes from Hastings that Mr. Stebbins 
died there on the 21st of December, 1878. 



HON. WILLIAM H. MILLS, 

CARVER. 

WILLIAM HENRY MILLS, one of the framers of the Minnesota state 
constitution, and a resident of this state since 1855, is a native of the 
Keystone State, and was born in Bellefonte, Centre county, on the 3d of March, 
1832. His parents were Peter and Amelia Goodwin Mills; his father, a black- 
smith by trade, dying when the son was two years old. Two years later his 
mother married a second time ; the family moved to Mercer county, Pennsyl- 
vania ; in 1842, to Canton, Ohio; and two years afterward, to Fort Wayne, 
Indiana. 



l8o THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPIITCAI. DICTIONARY. 

William received his earlier education at the Marlborough, Salem and Fort 
Wayne Academies, and the Commercial College in the last-named place; in 
1846 enlisted for one year as a private, 3d Indiana Volunteers, James H. Lane, 
commander; at the end of the year recnlisted for five years or to the close of 
the war, and was in the city of Mexico when the war closed, and was mustered 
out in August, 1848. He was in the battle of Buena Vista, and one or two other 
engagements, hut received no injury. 

After returning from the war, Mr. Mills attended school two years at Mount 
Union, Ohio, teaching winters ; was in the mercantile trade awhile in Indiana; 
and taught school in Stephenson county, Illinois, in 1854. 

In 1S55 he came to Olmsted county, Minnesota, and for several years was 
engaged in surveying government and other lands, — in 1869 and 1870 locating 
indemnity school lands in the western part of this state. In 1S71 he settled in 
Carver, being station agent there most of the time since that date, the first year 
for the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway Company, and latterly and 
now for the Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railroad Company. He is a prompt, 
efficient and perfectly reliable business man. 

In .September, 1861, Mr. Mills went into the army as first lieutenant of com- 
pany (^, ;d Minnesota Volunteers; was promoted to the rank of captain in 1S62, 
and was in the service a little less than two years. During a few months of this 
time he was in the 12th Kentucky and 2d Minnesota Infantry. He was provost- 
marshal at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, about six months, and a little later in 
the same position a short time at Nashville. 

Captain Mills was a member of the constitutional convention in 1857, and 
was in the state senate in 1877 and 187S. He was chairman of the Olmsted 
county board of supervisors when the civil war broke out, and resigned to go 
into the service. He also served as justice ot the peace there several years, and 
holds that office now in Carver county, making in all a period of eighteen or 
nineteen years that he has held the office. 

Captain Mills was a republican until about iS6q, and has since received his 
honors at lh(! hands ot the democracy, with whom he is in full fellowship. 

He is a Chapter Mason, and has been master of different lodges for a period 
of thirteen years. 

Captain Mills was first married in October, 1852, to Miss Catharine Bates, 
of Whitley county, Indiana. She died on the 26th of March, 1854, leaving one 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. i8l 

child, it following- her soon after. He was married the second time, in April, 
1858, to Miss Clara Mears, of Olmsted county, Minnesota. He has three children 
by her. 



JOHN M. SHAW, 

MINNBAPOL IS. 

JOHN MELVIL SHAW, lawyer, was born on the iSth of December, 1S33, 
in the town of Exeter, Penobscot count)', Maine. He is second son and fourth 
child of John and Frances A. (French) Shaw; has five sisters and one brother 
living. His father's occupation was merchant and farmer, and he was the son of 
Georoe Shaw, who was born in England, and who was among the early settlers 
at New Durham, New Hampshire, where John .Shaw was born. Subsequently 
the family removed to Exeter, Maine. Our subject's paternal grandfather par- 
ticipated in the first struggle with the mother country, and died at Exeter. The 
maternal grandfather of John M. was Dr. Benjamin French, who was born in 
London, and early emigrated to this country, settling at .Saint Albans, Somerset 
count)', Maine, where he lived and died. 

John M. attended the common and high' schools of Exeter, and afterward the 
academy at East Corinth. Maine. While in the latter he entertained aspirations 
toward a collegiate course, but he was subsequently obliged to abandon these 
desires on the death of his father. He left the acadeni)' in the fall of 1851, the 
day before the family emigrated to the west. Their intention on starting was to 
come to Minnesota, but on arriving at Galena, Illinois, the river was frozen, and 
being unable to come farther, on that account, they remained at Galena that win- 
ter. In the spring of 1852 the father and two sons came to Minnesota, where 
John .Shaw died the following summer, at what is now Minnesota Citv. Durino- 
the fall of that year the family removed from Galena to Minnesota, and settled 
at Cottage Grove, where they resided until the next spring, when they returned 
to Galena. There the family lived until 1S62. Meantime our subject entered a 
wholesale house in that city as book-keeper, a position which he retained for a 
period of seven years. He began in 1856 to read law during his leisure hours, 
and continued to do so till 1850, when he abandoned the mercantile business and 
entered the law office of A. L. Cumniings and Co., where he studied assiduously 
for one year; was then admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Illinois. 



lS2 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Remained at Galena until the spring of iS62,\vhen the family removed to Platte- 
ville, Wisconsin. About two months afterward our subject enlisted in the 25th 
Wisconsin Volunteers, and at once entered active service as second lieutenant of 
company E. He afterward became captain, and was mustered out as such. They 
were first ordered to the defense of the frontier against Indians. In the spring 
of 1863 they went south to Columbus, Kentucky. There Captain Shaw remained 
on detached service as judge advocate for one year, the regiment, in the mean- 
time, taking part in the siege of Vicksburg, where Captain Shaw joined it in the 
spring of 1864. He participated in what w^as called Sherman's meridian raiil. 
across the state of Mississippi to the Alabama line and back. Went from \'icks- 
buriT to Chattanoosfa, where General Sherman organized his Atlantic campai^jn. 
Captain Shaw participated in the battles around Atlanta, and after the fall of 
that stronghold, (as he expresses it) made a raid on his own hook to Minnesota, 
and captured a wife. That was in September, and in the following October 
(1864) he returned to the held, lea\'ing his wile with his mother's family at Platte- 
ville, Wisconsin, anil joined his regiment just as they were starting with Sherman 
on his memorable march to the sea. He continued witli General Sherman up 
through South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, to Washington, partici- 
pating in all the engagements of that march, and during the latter part doing 
duty on the staff of General Force. He was mustered out of the service in June, 
1865, at Washington, and immediately returned to Platteville, where he lived 
until the following October. Then he removed to Minneapolis and engaged in 
the practice of his profession. In February, 1866, he became associated with 
Franklin Beebe, under the name of Beebe and Shaw. This law firm continued 
until the 12th of [une, 1875, when it was dissolved. On the ist of August of the 
same \ear he formeil a law partnership with A. L. Levi, under the firm name of 
.Shaw and Levi, which still continues. 

Mr. Shaw enjoys the reputation of being a first-class lawyer, of more than 
average ability. As a jm'ist, he ranks high among the Hennepin County Bar 
Association, of which he is a member. Shrewd and well read, and quick to per- 
ceive points of advantage, he throws his whole force into the management of a 
case, and makes a clear, concise and convincing argument. Much against his 
personal wishes, he was elected city attorney in 1869 and 1870. In political ques- 
tions he has always actively sympathized with the republican party. He some 
time since became a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 183 

On the 27th of September, 1864, at Minneapolis, Captain Shaw married Miss 
Ellen A. Elliott, daughter of Dr. Jacob S. Elliott. They have three children : 
Mabel, born on the 17th of April, 1S68; Bertha, born on the 3d of November, 
1871 ; and John Elliott, born on the 30th of April, 1875. Mr. Shaw and wife 
attend worship at the Congregational church, being members of the society. 



HON. THOMAS S. BUCKHAM, 

FARIBAULT. 

THOMAS SCOTT BUCKHAM, attorney-at-law, and recently a state 
senator from Rice county, Minnesota, is a native of the Green Mountain 
State, being born at Chelsea, Orange count}', on the 7th of January, 1837. His 
father, James Buckham, a Congregational clergyman, yet living in Burlington, 
Vermont, aged eighty-three years, was from Kelso, Scotland, coming over the 
year before Thomas was born. The mother of our subject was Margaret Barmby, 
who was from Yorkshire, England. The son was prepared for college by his 
father; entered the University of Vermont, at Burlington, in 185 i, and was gradu- 
ated four years later, teaching every winter while in college. 

Mr. Buckham read law at Mexico ville, Oswego county, New York, teaching- 
school at the same time; came to Faribault in 1857; was here admitted to the 
bar in the autumn of that year; and the law has been his profession and main 
business for twenty-one years. He is a man ot studious habits, thorough in his 
readings, and sound as a lawyer and as a man. He is very modest — will never 
be likely to overestimate his own merits; and being a judge of character, as well 
as of law, is not likely to overestimate the worth of others. 

At an early day in practice here, Mr. Buckham was elected prosecuting 
attorney for the county, and served two years ; a little later was county superin- 
tendent of schools for tour years; was mayor ot the city one term, and state 
senator in 1874 and 1875, being chairman of the judiciary committee both ses- 
sions. He had no pet measure to get through the legislature, but did general 
and judicious work, looking well to what he believed was for the best interests 
of his constituents and the state. In character, and all the elements of a true 
man, he is among the most solid citizens of Faribault. 

Mr. Buckham has always acted with the republican party, and was appointed 



1 84 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

a delegate; to its national convention held in Pliiladelphia in 1S72, but was not 
able to attend. 

He heartily agrees with the Congregationalists in religions \ic\vs, he and his 
wife, who was Miss Anna A. Mallary, of Brooklyn, New York, worshiping with 
that people. Their marriage took place in November, 1866. 



CHARLES C WILLSON, 

ROCHESTER. 

Cll ARl.KS CUDWOR TH WILLSON, the most e.xtensive and successful 
legal practition**!' in Olmsted roiint)', antl a leading farmer in the valley 
of the Zumbro, was born in the town ol Mansfield, Cattaraugus tountw New 
York, on the 27th of OcLuber, 1.S29. His grandfather, Ezekiel Willson, a revolu- 
tionary pensioner, was liorn in Rehoboth, Bristol county, Massachusetts; and 
both parents, (iideon Hovey and Lydia Manley Willson, in Newfane, W indham 
c(junt\', V'ermont. 

Charles received his literar\' education at the Springville .'\catlem\-, Erie 
county. New York, where he attended three years; at sixteen went to Hlyria, 
(^hio, and read law one year with McAechron and Myers; then, returning to 
western New ^ Ork, read two years with Hon. Scott Lonl, of Geneseo, and was 
admitted to the bar at Rocliestcr, New \'ork. his ijarchment being dated the 3tl 
of Septemlier, 1851. 

Mr. Willson commenced practice at Geneseo, in partnership with Hon. Will- 
iam A. Collins, since a judge of the circuit court of Ohio. In the autumn of 
1856 Mr. Willson visited Rochester, Minnesota, on a prospecting tour; eighteen 
months later located here, and lor twenty years has been in \ery active and 
remuneratix (■ practice. At an early day he addetl real estate to his business — 
was, in fact, one ol the town jjroprielors of Rochester, — and now has a farm of 
one; hundred and se\'ent\-hve acres in the corjjoration, |iart ol it ili\ided intcj 
lots, and hiteen lumdred acres one mile from the cit)- limits. \\ hile we write 
(^on the 1st ol August, 1878,) he has seven rea|)ers running in eight huiKlred 
acres of wheat. He has also more than one hundred acres of corn, having one 
thousand acre-s in this one larm imder impro\emenl. In 1S77 he raised fifteen 
thousand luishels ol wheal, which he sold for ninet\-eight cents a bushel. 





Sn^'i^SS .'-. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 187 

Mr. Willson is one of the most energetic, enterprising men in the county, 
and is doing his full share in developing the agricultural wealth of his adopted 
state. Besides his property already mentioned, he has twenty-five acres where 
he lives, and is just completing a house which cost more than fifteen thousand 
dollars. It is a gothic brick structure, with the modern impi ovements, and is 
an ornament to the city. 

He has a law library which cost six thousand dollars, and the office in which 
it is located is his workshop. The many well-thumbed and profusely marked 
volumes indicate solid labor. Mr. Willson owes his accumulations to his exten- 
sive legal practice. His application and perseverance in whatever he undertakes 
are untiring. 

In politics, Mr. Willson was formerly a republican; latterly has been independ- 
ent, with a leaning to the democratic side. He attends the Calvary Episcopal 
Church, where his family belong. 

His wife was Miss Annie Rosebrugh, of Hamilton, province of Ontario; 
married on the 28th of F"ebruary, 1862. They have seven children, two boys 
and five girls. 

Both parents of Mr. Willson, and his only brother and three sisters, — all the 
near relatives he ever had, — are living, their residence being in western New 
York. He himself, though hugging close to fifty, has the unwrinkled rosiness, 
activity and robustness of middle life. 



HENDERSON D. MORSE, 

]l'/NONA. 

AMONG the early settlers and successful business men of Winona is Hen- 
^ derson Dwight Morse, descendant of an old Massachusetts family. His 
immediate progenitor in this country was the Rev. Samuel Morse, an Episcopal 
clergyman. Henderson comes of patriotic and fighting stock, his great-grand- 
father being in the first war with Ensfland, and his grandfather, Daniel Morse, 
being a captain in the second. The latter was one of the men who forded the 
sand-bar at the mouth of the La Moille river to Grand Isle, opposite Plattsburgh, 
a distance of six miles, and there fought the enemy. The parents of our subject, 
Alpheus and Caroline Ives Morse, were living at the time of his birth — on the 



1 88 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

19th of March, 1829, — at Milton, Chittenden county, Vermont, directly on the 
line of Georj^ia, Franklin county; and when the son was about three years old 
they moved to P'airfax Falls, where the father ens^aged in the manufacture of 
woolen goods. A few years later he removed to W'aterville, in the same state, 
there eneaeins much more extensively in manutactories, havins: about two hun- 
dred operatives in his emploj'. He was a man of much influence and public spirit, 
and at one time a judge of La Moille county. 

Henderson supplemented a common-school education with a few terms at 
the Bakersfield Academy, and then accjuainted himself with every branch of 
manufacture in his father's mills; acting, at different times, as overseer in every 
room, from the upper story to the finishing department. 

In 1S49, when he was twenty years old, Mr. Morse, on his father losing his 
mills by fir(^ concluded, with his father's consent, to commence "paddling his 
own canoe." He went to Lowell, Massachusetts, reaching there at three o'clock 
in the morning, finding himself in a city of strangers. It was before the era of 
professional tramps, and, not believing in idleness, after a short nap and a late 
breakfast he started out in search of employment, and before ten o'clock of 
that forenoon had secured a situation as clerk in a hardware store, there re- 
maining for two and a halt years. He then went on the road, wholesaling goods 
between Boston and the Canada line. At lengj^th his health betran to decline, 
and in 1.S53 he left the road; went to West Berkshire, X'ermont, whither his 
father had removed ; there stepped oft his wagon, and the same day commenced 
selling goods in that town ; at the end of one year sold out, and after prospect- 
ing awhile in the west, in May, 1855, located at Winona. Here he bought 
property, and commenced loaning money, soon afterward adding real estate to 
his business. 

In 1859, when Winona began to export wheat on a moderate scale, Mr. 
Morse went into the grain trade, following it until 1864, when he disposed of 
his Intercast in it, anvl n;turned to real estate ami money-loaning, being a suc- 
cessful operator in nearly everything to which he has given his attention. His 
business is always good because he makes it so, and his integrity is unques- 
tioned. 

Mr. Morse is one of those shrewd Yankees who gives his own business his 
undivided attention. He has consented to hold one or two civil offices — was 
one of the city commissioners at an early period in this state, when there was 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 189 

such an office, and has been in the city council one or two terms, but pays very 
Httle attention to poHtics. His affiliations are with the democracy, but he rarely 
attends a convention. 

He is a Royal Arch Mason, and has held several offices in this and the sub- 
ordinate lodge. He worships at the Episcopal church, and is a liberal supporter 
of the gospel. 

Mr. Morse has a second wife. His first was Miss Cordelia P. Babcock, of 
West Berkshire, Vermont; chosen in November, 1854. She had one child, and 
died in February, 1858, the child following her a week later. His present wife 
was Miss Isabella M. Mathews, of Elmira, New York; married in March, 1862. 
She has had three children, two of them living: Charles Mortimer, aged thirteen, 
and Isabella Arndt, aged six years. Mrs. Morse is superintendent of the In- 
dustrial School in Winona, usually having about two hundred children under 
her care, and is very active in religious enterprises connected with the Episcopal 
church, and in benevolent movements generally. 



HON. ORANGE WALKER, 

MARINE. 

ONE of the founders of Marine, Minnesota, and one of the most enterprising 
men in Washington county, is Orange Walker, a native of Saint Albans, 
Vermont. He was born on the 4th of September, 1803, his parents being Lewis 
and Mary (Potter) Walker, agriculturists. He is descended from " Widow Walk- 
er," who was one of the first proprietors of the town of Rehoboth, or Seacunk, 
now Seekonk, Massachusetts, and her sons (born in England) and her grand- 
sons started some of the Old Colony families of the highest respectability. Lewis 
Walker, father of Orange, born in 1765, settled as a farmer at Saint Albans in 
1793; had eleven children; represented his town in the legislature, and there 
died. He was the sixth generation from " Widow Walker." Several members 
of the family in that generation fought for the independence of the colonies, and 
appear to have been a brave and patriotic class of people. 

Orange supplemented a common-school education with a couple of terms at 
the academy in his native town ; at sixteen years of age left his father's farm, and 
gave five years to an apprenticeship at the tanner and courier's trade at Saint 



igo 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



Albans; subsequently carried on the business two years at Milton, Vermont, and 
in^October, 1834, removed to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he had an interest in a 
tan-yard. 

Two years later he bought land near Lebanon, in that state; broke forty 
acres, and in the spring of the next year, being in poor health, came with a com- 
pany of pioneers to the site of Marine, — the first white settlers here. It was on 
the Sioux line, eight miles south of the neutral lands between that Indian nation 
and the Chippewas. Among the settlers were Lewis Judd, David Hone, William 
Dibble, Samuel Berkelo, Asa S. Parker, Hiram Berkey and George B. Judd. Lewis 
Judd and David Hone visited the Saint Croix valley in the autumn of 1H38, and 
selected Marine for jhe site of a town. Mr. Judd was a very energetic, enterpris- 
ing man, and died at Marine, Illinois, in 1849. ^^''- Walker reached here on the 
I 3th of May, 1839. and in a very tew days had a comlortable log cabin — the first 
in the place — ready for occupancy, and in ninety days the company had a saw- 



mill running. 



Here, for nearly thirty years, Mr. Walker has been engaged in milling, lum- 
bering and merchandising, being a remarkably enterprising and eminently suc- 
cessful operator. He is a stockholder and director of the First National Bank 
of Stillwater. Since 1864 he has been of the firm of Walker, Judd and Veazie, 
who are doing about two hundred thousand dollars annually. One oi his part- 
ners, Samuel ludd, is a son of the late Lewis Jinkl ; the other is Wm. H. Veazie, 
both stirring and public-spirited men. 

When Mr. Walker located at Marine there was no post-office nearer than 
Fort Snelling, a distance of thirty-five miles, and for two or three years mail 
facilities were poor enough. At length a mail route was established to Marine. 
Mr. Walker was appointed postmaster, and held the office about twenty-five 
years, his successor and present incumbent being Samuel Judd. Mr. W alker 
was county commissioner eight or ten years, and a member of the legislature 
in i860. 

He was an old-line whig, always keeping in "lint-" while there was one. 
On the demise of his favorite party he joined the young and enthusiastic party 
of freedom, and in it still trains. 

Mr. Walker ditl not marry till the 16th of December, 1848, his wife being 
Mrs. Georgiana E. Lockwood nee Barton, of Prescott, Wisconsin, a native of 
W' ilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. She has had no children by either husband. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. iqI 

Lewis Walker, a younger brother, who came to Marine some years after 
Orange, is a mechanic, learning his trade of his elder brother. He still lives in 
Marine. 

Porter Walker, another brother of Orange, and the eleventh child in the fam- 
ily, came to Minnesota about 1856; taught school awhile at Taylor's Falls, and 
settled at Marine in the autumn of 1857. He was county superintendent of 
schools for several years, and is now a thrifty farmer, living in the village of 
Marine. 



JOSEPH A. SARGENT, 

CHASKA. 

JOSEPH AUGUSTUS SARGENT, son of Joseph Smith and Ann H. 
J (Griffin) .Sargent, dates his birth at Hallowell, Maine, on the 28th of Novem- 
ber, 1 82 1. The Sargent family early settled in Loudon, New Hampshire, 
spreading thence into Maine and other states. The maternal grandfather of our 
subject, William Griffin, was in the war of 1812-15. Joseph Smith Sargent moved 
to Portland when the son was about fourteen years old, the latter finishing his 
literary education at the North Yarmouth Academy. He read law with R. A. L. 
Codman, of Portland, teaching one term about this time, and then went into the 
mercantile business, thinking at that time to abandon the law altogether. 

In 1854 Mr. Sargent came to Saint Paul, Minnesota; resumed his law studies, 
reading with Hon. C. D. Gilfillan, and was admitted to practice in that city in 
the spring of 1855. He immediately opened an office at Carver, Carver county ; 
practiced there until i860, and then removed to Chaska, the county seat, two 
miles north, here continuing the practice of law. Most of the time he has been 
kept in some public position, often holding two offices at the same time. At an 
early day in Carver county he held the office of county attorney two terms ; was 
soon afterward register of deeds an equal period ; was county superintendent of 
schools a short time ; was justice ot the peace ten years, and has been judge of 
probate during the last thirteen years. He is one of the most popular men in 
the county, performing the duties of every office which he holds, or has held, with 
the utmost faithfulness, and to the satisfaction of the people. 

The Judge is usually classed with democrats, yet often runs on an independ- 
ent ticket, sometimes receiving his nomination from republicans. There is very 



192 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

little of the ])artis;iii in his comijosition ; he finds good men in all political parties, 
and all jtolitical jjarties find a good man in him. 

In religious belief ludge Sargent is an Episcopalian, holding his connection 
with the cluirch at Shakopee, four miles east, there being none of his denomina- 
tion in Chaska. 

The Judo-e has been twice married : the first time in May, 1846, to Miss Maria 
Whitini'-, of Portland, Maine. She had three children, and lost all of them, dying 
herself in October, 1863. His second marriage was in July, 1865, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Thompson, of Troy, New York. She has three children: Clara M., aged 
thirteen ; Emily A., aged ten, antl Joseph .Smith, aged four years. 

Judge Sargent i^a stout-built man, five feet nine inches tall, and weighing one 
hundred and ninety-eight pounds. He is a man of excellent social disposition, 
corilial in manners, and a pleasant converser, — in short, a gentleman of the old 
school. 



HON. SAMUEL LORD, 

FARfBAULT. 

SAMUEL LORD, Judge of the fifth judicial district of Minnesota, and a 
son of Enoch and Eleanor Warren Lord, is a descendant of an old Connecti- 
cut fiunily, now sjiread over the New England, middle and most of the western states. 
He dates his birth at Meadville, Pennsylvania, on the 26th of July, 1831, where 
he remained till of age, losing his father, a farmer, when the son was fourteen 
years old. Samuel was educated at the local coll(>ge, taking special studies, such 
as he deemed of most importance, and not graduating, teaching school one or 
two terms, but never designing to follow that vocation. 

He read law at Meadville, with Joshua Douglas; came to Minnesota in 1856, 
and practiced three years at Marion, Olmsted county, representing that county 
in the legislature in the session of 1857-8. 

In 1859 Mr. Lord removed to Mantorville, Dodge county, where he was in 
practice, except when on the bencli, until 1876, when he removed to Faribault, 
his present home. He was a meml)er of the state senate, representing Mower 
and Dodge counties in 1866, 1867, 1870 and 1871, being chairman of the judiciary 
committee during three of these sessions. His standing in the upper branch oi 
the legislature was highly creditable. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 193 

Mr. Lord was elected judge in the autumn of 1871 for a term of seven years, 
and reelected in November, 1878. 

He is learned in the law, and a man of liberal culture ; is patient and pains- 
taking in his official duties, cool in his deliberations, strictly impartial, and a man 
of the highest integrity. Such men honor the ermine. 

Judge Lord has always affiliated with the republican party, to which he owes 
the repeated honors conferred upon him. 

In June, 1855, Miss Louisa Compton, of Erie county, Pennsylvania, was 
united in marriaoe with Tudoe Lord, and thev have five children living, and have 
lost two. 



FRANKLIN STAPLES, M.D., 

WINONA. 

FRANKLIN STAPLES is a practicing physician and surgeon, and for the 
last four or five years a member of the state board of health. He is a son 
of Peter and Sarah (Maxwell) Staples, and was born in Raymond (now Casco), 
Cumberland county, Maine, on the 9th of November, 1833. The Staples family 
is of English descent, and early settlers in Kittery, Maine. The family of Peter 
Staples, during Franklin's early life, resided in Buxton, York county, Maine. 

He received a thorough academic education at Limerick, Parsonfield and 
Auburn, in his native state, and began the study of medicine with Dr. Charles 
S. D. Fessenden, of Portland, in 1855, and was subsequently a student of Drs. 
W. C. Robinson and I. T. Dana, of Portland ; attended lectures in the medical 
department of Bowdoin College and in the Portland School for Medical Instruc- 
tion, and in 1861 entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York 
city, and was graduated in March of the following year. 

On receiving his diploma, Dr. Staples went directly to the Maine Medical 
School, as the student and assistant of the late Dr. David Conant, having been 
appointed demonstrator of anatomy there for that year. The following summer 
(1862) he settled in Winona, associating himself in the general practice with the 
late Dr. John D Ford, the originator of the normal-school system of this state. 

In the Winona Preparatory Medical School, established in 1872, he occupies 
the chairs of physiology, and of obstetrics and diseases of women. 

In 1 87 1 Dr. Staples was elected president of the Minnesota State Medical 



'94 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



Society, and in 1874 was appointed a member of the State Board of Health, and 
reappointed three years later, still holding this office. 

Dr. Staples is a member of the American Medical Association, ami was elected 
one of its judicial council in 1S75, which position he still holds, and was one of 
the vice-presidents in 1877. 

The Doctor is a frequent contributor to medical periodicals, writing more or 
less every year. Among his more elaborate essays are those upon "Catarrhal 
Inflammation in Uterine Diseases," which was a prize essay of the Minnesota 
State Medical Society in 1871; " Influence of Climate on Pulmonary Disease in 
Minnesota," published in the transactions of the American Medical Association 
in 1S76; and " Troatment of Fracture of the Shaft of the Femur, the American 
Method," a paper read before the Minnesota State Medical Society, at Saint 
Peter, on the i8th of June, 1878. 

Dr. Staples is a member of the school board of Winona, and quite active 
in educational and other local enterprises. 

In politics, he is a republican, but will accept no ofhce. Nothing is allowed 
to interfere with his professional practice and studie.s. He has a large medical 
library, ami all the facilities for progress in the knowledge of his profession. 
His favorite department in practice is surgery, — his standing being very high 
in this department. He is a Royal Arch Mason. 

Dr. Staples was married on the 4th of June, 1863, to Miss Helen M., 
daughter of Ezra Harford, Esq., of Portland, Maine ; and of four children, the 
result of this union, three are living. 



HON. DAVID B. LOOMIS, 

SriLIAVArEli. 

DAVID BURT LOOMIS, one of the oldest settlers in StilKvalcr. a son of 
Hubbc'l and jerusha Burt Loomis, was born in Willington, Connecticut, on 
the 17th of April, 181 7. The Loomis famih" is of German pedigree, earl\- set- 
tling in New England. Hubbel Loomis was a Baptist preacher, and later in life 
a teacher, being president of Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, Illinois, for several 
years, there dying in 1874, in his ninety-ninth year. 

In 1830 the family moved from Connecticut to Kaskaskia, Illinois, where 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 195 

David attended a district scItooI. Wlien about fifteen lie went to Alton, and at 
seventeen became a clerk in a store, holding that situation four or five years. 
He was there in 1837, when Rev. J. C. Lovejoy had his anti-slavery press de- 
stroyed, and his own life taken by a pro-slavery mob, Mr. Loomis standing within 
two feet of the martyr when he fell, and- aiding to lay him out. 

Shortly afterward he went to Hurricane, Montgomery county, Illinois, and 
clerked there and at Greenville, same state, till 1842, when he returned to Alton. 
Spending another year there, in the autumn of 1843 '^^ came to .Stillwater, and 
worked among the lumbermen in the woods. Two years later, in company with 
Martin Mower and others, he built the Areola Mills, part of the time William 
H. C. Folson and James Brewster being in the company. 

In 1847 M""- Loomis became surveyor of lumber for the first district, holding 
that position two years. In 1853, in connection with Socrates Nelson and others, 
built the mills at Baytown, now South .Stillwater, running these until 1859, when 
he disposed of his interest. 

In 1861 Mr. Loomis went into the army as first lieutenant company F, 2d 
Minnesota Infantry, serving three and a half years, being in many engagements, 
yet receiving no injury. He was mustered out as captain ot the company. 

Latterly Captain Loomis has held a clerkship in the office of Durant, Wheeler 
and Co., one of the leading lumber firms in Stillwater. 

He was a member of the territorial council from 1849 to 1853, and president 
of the same during the third session. He was in the lower house ot the leois- 
lature in the session of 1874. 

In politics. Captain Loomis was originally a whig, and has been a republican 
since 1855. He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity, and belongs to the 
Independent Order of Sons of Malta. In religious sentiment, he is a Universalist. 

When Captain Loomis came here, late in 1843, the first saw-mill on the pres- 
ent site of the city was not completed, and Stillwater was hardly out of the 
embryotic state. He has lived to see it expand into a thriving city of seven 
thousand inhabitants, taking no small part in building it up. 

His reminiscences of Stillwater are clear and full of interest. At an early 

day there was only one public hall, and that one not very pretentious in size. On 

one occasion it was engaged for a " hop," and a Methodist minister came into 

town late in the afternoon, and wanted to preach that night. The proprietor 

told him that he could use the hall before the dancing began. Before commenc- 
23 



196 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

ing his sermon he was kindly requested by some of the young people to be brief. 
He was. and so impatient were the dancers to commence, that before the minister 
had reached the bottom of the stairs the fiddlinLj began. 



SOLOMON P. STEWART, 

N(nnHFIElJ). 

Tl IK siil)j(:ct of this sketch is of Scotch descent, his great-grandfather coming 
to this countr)' some time prior to the revolution, and settling in western 
Massachusetts. Thfe father of .Solomon Prindle .Stewart was Thomas Stewart, a 
farmer, residing in W'illiamstown, Berkshire county, when the son was born, on 
the 28th of August, 1823. The maiden name of the mother was Rachel Prindle, 
whose ancestors were very early settlers in Connecticut. \\ hen our subject was 
twelve years old, the family moved westward into W'illiamstown, Oswego county. 
New York, where he finished his education in a district school, farming in the 
busiest season of the year. At seventeen he went into the woods, and from tliat 
age lumbering was his business tor three or four years. 

In the spring of 1S44 Mr. Stewart took another western stride, locating at 
Racine, Wisconsin, then a village of pcM'haps six hundred inhabitants. He went 
there in company with Jerome I. Case, now one of the leading manufacturers in 
Wisconsin, and was with him several )ears in the machinist business, subse- 
quently running a livery and sales stable. 

In May, 1857, Mr. Stewart made a third push westward, settling in North- 
field, and being in the dr\'-goods business here until 1866. .Since that date he 
has been in the lumber trade, selling, on an average, about two and a half million 
feet per annum, being the largest dealer ot the kind in the city, il not in Rice 
county. In a business line, he is a man of strict integrity and a success. 

Since locating in the city of Northfield, Mr. .Stewart has taken a deep interest 
in its progress, and shown himself behind none in public spirit. He has served 
six years on the city school board, and has been mayor two years, making an 
efficient executive. Northfield has a first-class trraded school, owin*/ to the enter- 
prise of a few such men as Mr. Stewart, and two colleges, — one Congregational, 
the other Scandinavian. It is becoming very much of a literary town, and 
having a pleasant, health)- location, is a very desirable place in which to live. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 197 

In politics, Mr. Stewart was reared a whig, casting his first vote for President 
for Henry Clay in 1S44. On the disbanding of that party, ten years later, he 
joined the republican, to which he still adheres. 

Mr. Stewart has a second wife. His first was Miss Mary Allen, of Geneva, 
Wisconsin, to whom he was joined in October, 1849. She had two children, and 
died in January, 1861. The elder of the children, Granville W. Stewart, is a 
lumber dealer in San Francisco, California ; the younger, Mary Belle, is in Albert 
Lea, Minnesota. The present wife of Mr. Stewart was Miss Emily S. Tuttle, of 
Northfield, chosen on the loth of April, 1863. By her he has three children, — 
Carl Lyndon, Carrie E. and Mary B. 



HON. ERASMUS D. WHITING, M.D., 

TArLOR'S FALLS. 

ERASMUS DARWIN WHITING, a native of Oneida county. New York, 
was born at Vernon Center, on the 19th of December, 181 1. His father, 
Selah Whiting, a merchant, was of English, his mother, Sabra Abernethy, of 
Scotch, descent. The Abernethys are a prominent family in Scotland, some of 
them being quite eminent in the medical profession. When Erasmus was three 
years old his parents, both natives of Litchfield county, Connecticut, returned 
to New Hartford in that county. Selah was captain of a militia company when 
the second war with England commenced, and he and all his company offered 
their services, but, at the persuasion of his wife, he obtained a substitute. 

The subject of this brief biography was educated mainly at a private school, 
taught by the Rev. Mr. Cooley, at Granville, and in the Westfield (Massachu- 
setts) Academy; at sixteen commenced reading medicine with his uncle. Dr. 
Andrew Abernethy, of New Hartford, and finished with Dr. O. K. Hawley, at 
Austinburgh, Ashtabula count)', Ohio ; attended lectures first at Fairfield, New 
York, and then at Cincinnati, graduating from the Ohio Medical College early 
in the year 1832. 

Dr. Whiting practiced two or three years in Wayne, Ashtabula county, Ohio; 
a little more than twenty years at Atlas and Rockport, Pike county, Illinois; 
being at Atlas also postmaster several years, and in 1855 removed to Taylor's 
Falls, retiring from practice except in consultation. Here he was engaged in 



igS I'HE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

the mercantile trade and lunil)crintj until 1867, being very successful in his opera- 
tions generally. Winding up his business, he attended the Paris exposition in 
that year, being absent in Europe about eight months. Since returning to this 
country, the Doctor has done little more than take care of his pine lands and 
other propert)'. 

lie was a member of the legislature in 1S60 and 1861, attending two regular 
sessions and one e.xtra session. He was chairman ol the committees on printing 
and state prison, and was on other committees, being a diligent worker. 

In politics, he was originall)- a whig, since then a republican, and has long- 
been a man of inlluence in the ])arty. 

Dr. Whitins-- has had two wives, neither of them now living. His first wife 
was Miss Emily Bradley, of Fairfield, New York, chosen on the 2d of November, 
1837. She died on the 20th of February, 1866. His second wife was Mrs. Fannie 
L. Smith, widow of Dr. Lucius B. Smith, of Taylor's Falls ; married on the 2d of 
June, 1869. She died on the i6th of July, 1872. 

Dr. Whiting is a remarkably well preserved man, looking much younger than 
he really is. He has always had sense enough to take good care of his health, 
and bids fair to spend another score of useful years among his fellow-men. 



HON. JOHN B. H. MITCHELL, 

STILLWATER. 

JOHN BYRAM HOWARD MITCHELL, one of the founders of the Saint 
J Paul " Dail}' Times," in 1854, is of Scotch pedigree, several relatives ol that 
name coming over about 1748, locating at first in Pennsylvania, and spreading 
thence into different states. The progenitor of our subject, Moses Mitchell, set- 
tled in North Carolina, and fought for independence under Generals Sumter and 
Marion. Before the revolution he accompanied I^aniel Boone to Kentucky. 

The wife of Moses Mitchell was Mary Grant, whose father was one of the few 
Scotch Presbyterians who joined the Pretender, Prince Charles Edward, in 1745, 
and soon after the battle of Colloden was taken prisoner, confined in the Tower 
of Lf)ndon, and sentenced to hv beheaded. He finally had his sentence com- 
muted, on condition that he would leave the country, which he did, settling in 
North Carolina. He was the father of six sons, five of whom were killed in bat- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 199 

ties with the Indians and in the second war with England. The sixth and young- 
est son was in the same war, and fought at the battle of the Thames, Canada. 
The family of Mitchells were Scotch Covenanters, who freed their slaves at an 
early day and moved to the northern states. 

The parents of John were Israel and Elizabeth Howard Mitchell, living at the 
time of his birth, on the 26th of November, 1820, in Monroe county, Kentucky. 
Israel Mitchell was a frontiersman, delighting in adventure and in pioneer life. 
He was one of the early settlers at Galena, Illinois; opened a farm in Linn 
county, Iowa, when it was a territory, and in 1846 took the first overland train to 
Oregon, dying in 1874 while returning to the "far west" from a visit to his son. 

The subject of this sketch received his education almost entirely in a printing- 
office, learning the trade at Galena, Illinois, with Horace H. Houghton, and then, 
for ten years, alternating between working at the case and in the mines of Jo 
Daviess county, Illinois, and Grant county, Wisconsin. While a journeyman 
printer he worked in Dubuque, Iowa; Madison, Wisconsin; Nashville, Tennessee, 
and other places, writing more or less, all the time, for newspapers on which he 
worked, and others abroad. Printers grow into journalists almost as naturally as 
legs grow on tadpoles. 

Mr. Mitchell was in Nashville in 1849 ^"^ 1850, and reported the proceed- 
ings of the secession conventions tor the local and some of the northern papers. 
It soon became too hot for him there, and he left. 

In 1852. he came to Saint Paul, Minnesota; worked two years in the office of 
the " Pioneer," and in 1854, in company with T. M. Hewson, Colonel Alexander 
Wilkin, Martin J. Clum and George W. Farrington, started the Saint Paul "Daily 
Times," disposing of his interest in the paper in December of the same year. He 
was an independent, fearless writer. 

Since 1855 Mr. Mitchell has been farming and lumbering, with his home, most 
of the time, until quite recently, at Baytown, now called South Stillwater. He 
disposed of his farm four or five years ago, and is in the employ of Isaac Staples, 
the head lumberman in the valley of the Saint Croix, Mr. Mitchell having charge 
of certain branches of the business. He is a competent man in almost every 
department. 

While his home was at Baytown he was town clerk for a dozen years or more, 
and county commissioner a few terms. In 1863 and 1866 he was a member of 
the legislature, serving both sessions as chairman of the committee on printing. 



200 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Mitchell early imbibed the political principles of Henry Clay; was a 
strong- whig while that party was in existence, and on its demise joined the re- 
publicans, with whom he still affiliates. Years ago he was a very active politician, 
attending congressional, state and other conventions, and doing effective work 
for the party. He is a Master Mason. 

Mr. Mitchell was married in October, 1850, to Miss Marianna I!. Fiske, a 
native of Boston, Massachusetts. She died in 1852, leaving him one son, William 
B. Mitchell, at present a resident of Washington county, Minnesota. 



HT)N. SOLOMON G. COMSTOCK, 

MOORHEAD. 

SOLOMON OILMAN COMSTOCK, late representative in the Minnesota 
legislature from the forty-first district, is a son of [ames Madison Comstock, 
fanner and lumberman, and Louisa M. ("rilman, and was born in Argyle, Maine, 
on the 9th of May, 1S42. The branch ot the Comstock family from which he 
comes early settled in Rhode Island and New York, his grandfather, Solomon 
Comstock, being the pioneer of the family in the Pine Tree State. Three great- 
grandsires were in the seven years' war for independence, the fourth being a 
Quaker, and hence refusing to shoulder a musket. 

The subject of this notice was educated at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, 
Kent's Hill, and the Hampden Academy; commenced reading law in Bangor, 
Maine; attended the law department of the Michigan State University, at Ann 
Arbor; was admitted to the bar at Omaha, Nebraska, in 1869, and practiced 
there one year'; removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and resumed his legal 
studies in the office of D. A. Secombe, Esq., and in November, 1S71, settled in 
Moorhead. where he is opening two or three farms by proxy, while diligently 
pursuing his professional labors. His practice is large and remunerative, and he 
stands at the head of the bar in that part of the state, having come up very 
rapidly since locating in the Red River valley. His practice is on both sides of 
that stream, he doing as much business at Fargo, Dakota Territory, only half a 
mile ofl, as at Moorhead. In either city he is employed in nearly all the impor- 
tant cases. As a pleader, he is candid, sound and logical, and never fails to gain 
his case when lie has law on his side. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 20I 

Mr. Comstock was county attorney from 1872 to 1S77, and a member of the 
legislature in the sessions of 1876 and 1877, representing ten counties in the 
northwestern part of the state, and more than one-fourth of its area. He was on 
the judiciary committee during both sessions, and chairman of the committees on 
roads and bridges and taxes and tax laws. On the floor of the house and in the 
committee rooms probably none of his associates were more industrious than 
Mr. Comstock. He was sent there by his constituents to work, and he did not 
disappoint them. 

Politically, he has always belonged to the republican party, and is unwavering. 

On the 27th of May, 1874, he was joined in wedlock with Miss Sarah A. Ball, 
of Minneapolis, and they have one child. 



WILLIAM H. SMITH, M.D., 

ALBERT LEA. 

WILLIAM HENRY SMITH, a physician for nearly forty years, and an 
army surgeon four years, was born in Denmark, Lewis county. New York, 
on the 9th of March, 1815. His parents, Selah and Catherine (Tisdale) Smith, 
were classed amongf agriculturists ; the father, being one of the first settlers in 
that part of the Black River country, dying when William was thirteen years 
old. From that date the son took care of himself He was educated at com- 
mon and select schools ; commenced teachinsJ winter terms at nineteen, receiv- 



& 



ing eight dollars a month and board the first season, and taught six winters, 
working on a farm and attending select schools the rest of the time. 

At twenty-four years of age Mr. Smith commenced reading medicine with 
Dr. Elkaner French, of his native town ; attended the last course of lectures 
held at Fairfield, Herkimer county, before that medical college was moved to 
Geneva; received from the authorities oi Jefferson county a certificate permitting 
him to practice ; followed his profession four years at Permelia Four Corners, 
in that county; in 1846 removed to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and was there in 
practice twenty years, except when in the army. In 1856 he took a course of 
lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, from which he received his diploma. 

In 1 86 1 Dr. Smith went to the south as surgeon of a Wisconsin artillery 
regiment ; at the end of one year was transferred to the same position in the 



202 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



28th Wisconsin Infantry, and served three more years. During nine months of 
this time he was post-surgeon at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He is a kind-hearted 
man, and was very attentive to the wants of the sick and wounded. 

While at the south the Doctor contracted a disease from which he suflered 
more or less for a long time; and in 1866, thinking a change of climate might 
be beneficial, he went to I'ulton, Missouri, ])racticing when he had sufficient 
strenuth ; and in 1873, much imi)roved, returned to the north and settled at 
Albert Lea. Here he has a good run of business, and an excellent standing. 
He holds the office of county coroner. 

While in Beaver Dam, during the administrations of Presidents Taylor and 
Fillmore, he held the office of postmaster. A whig in early life, with free-soil 
tendencies, he naturally drifted into the republican ranks, where he is still found. 
For the last twenty-five years he has paid very little attention to politics, except 
to vote. His leisure time is given mainly to medical studies. 

On the 2 2d of February, 1843, he received the hand ot Miss Louisa M. 
Stevens, of West Martinsburgh, Lewis county, New York, and they have three 
children living, and lost a son, Selah H., by accident on a railroad at Cherokee, 
Kansas, in January, 1874. Mary is the wife of Jasper J. Bond, of Albert Lea, 
and Frances E. and Charles Henry are single, — both residing in Albert Lea. 



HON. FRANCIS R. E. CORNELL, 

MINXEAPOLIS. 

FRANCLS R. E. CORNELL, associate justice of the supreme court of Min- 
nesota, is a native of the Empire .State. The branch of the Cornells from 
which he sjjrang early settled in Rhode Island. He was a son of Edward and 
Lovina (Miles) Cornell, and was born in the town of Coventry, Chenango coun- 
ty, on the 17th of November, 182 1. He seems to have had a strong relish for 
books and study ; at fourteen years of age commenced teaching, and continued 
this calling for seven or eight winters. During this period he prepared for col- 
lege at the Oxford Academy, in his nati\e county; entered Union College in the 
third term of the sophomore class in 1839, and was graduated in 1842. 

Soon afterwanl Mr. Cornell commenced reading law in the office of Judge 
Thomas A. Johnson, of Corning, and was examined and admitted to practice at 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 203 

a term of the supreme court held at Albany in 1846. Opening an office at Addi- 
son, Steuben county, he continued in practice there until 1854, when he left his 
native state and settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is still his home. 

Before leaving New York, in the days of the " old-hunker " and " barn-burner " 
democrats, and the "silver-gray" and other whigs, Mr. Cornell was elected to the 
state senate, in 1852-53, as a barn-burner or free-soil democrat, representing Steu- 
ben and Chemung counties; and since a resident of Minnesota he has been kept 
in office more than half the time. He was in the lefjislature in 1861, 1862 and 
1865 ; was attorney-general of the state for six consecutive years, his term of 
office e.\piring in December, 1873, '^''"^1 ^^s been on the supreme bench since 
January, 1875. 

Since becoming a voter in Minnesota, the affiliations of Judge Cornell have 
been with the republican party. In religious belief, he is a Universalist. He 
belongs to the Masonic fraternity, but pays little attention to its meetings. 

His wife was Miss Eliza O. Burgess, of Coventry, New York. They were 
married in November, 1847, and have had three children, only two of them, Frank 
B. and Carrie R., are living. The son is an attorney-at-law, residing in Minneap- 
olis ; the daughter is with her parents. 



HON. JARED BENSON, 

ANOKA. \''. 

AMONG the prominent men and leading iarmers, stock-raisers and dairymen 
i- of Anoka county is Jared Benson, (four/sessions speaker of the Minnesota 
house of representatives. He is living a very quiet and industrious life on his 
farm, one and a half miles southeast of the city of Anoka, breeding short-horn 
cattle, Poland-China hogs, and Cotswolcl and Lincoln sheep. He has tried other 
breeds, — Devon and Ayrshire cattle. Merino sheep, and Chester-White and Berk- 
shire hogs; likes the Devons for their kind disposition and beauty, but thinks 
the short-horns are much the best for beef and milk ; prefers sheep with a large 
bociy and long wool, and regards the Poland-Chinas as par excellence the swine 
for Minnesota farmers. 

Mr. Benson was the son of Jared and Sally Taft Benson, and was born in 

that part of Mendon, Worcester county, Massachusetts, now known as Black- 

24 



204 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Stone, on the 8th of November, 1S21. The farm on which he was born, and 
which was purchased of the Indians by his great-great-grandfather, is still in the 
hands of the Benson family. His paternal great-grandfather, Benoni Benson, 
and his maternal grandfather, Ebenezer Taft, were in the revolutionary army, 
the former serving as a lieutenant. Jared Benson, senior, was in the second war 
with England. 

The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of his native 
town, and a sinule term at the Manual Labor Academy in Worcester. Farming 
was his occupation until 1844, when he joined the corps of engineers who were 
locating the Providence and Worcester railroad ; was afterward agent for the 
company, stationed at Blackstone, and subsequently was superintendent of trans- 
portation for the Worcester and Nashua Railroad Company, residing in Worcester. 

In April, 1856, Mr. Benson came to Minnesota, and located at Anoka, and 
for twenty-two years has been steadily engaged in agricultural pursuits. His 
homestead consists of about two hundred acres, lying on the old military road 
from Point Douglas to Fort Ripley, and most of it is under excellent improve- 
ment. He pays a good deal of attention to stock raising, and has more than one 
hundred head of graded cattle, and makes Irom three to four thousand pounds 
of butter annually. He is well-read on agricultural subjects, and is often con- 
sulted as good authority. He has about seventy acres of land in the city limits 
of Anoka, with buildings on some of it. 

While in Blackstone, Massachusetts, Mr. Benson held the office of justice of 
the peace, under appointment of the governor, and various other offices in the 
town ; and since coming to Anoka he has also been justice of the peace, together 
with county commissioner and town supervisor, and is now chairman of the town 
board. For six years he was a director of the Saint Paul and Pacific railroad, 
and in man)- ways his Ijusiness capacities have been tested, and found eminently 
practical and serviceable. 

In the session of the Minnesota legislature, held in the winter of 1859-60, 
Mr. Benson was chief clerk of the house of representatives, and for three years 
afterward was a member and speaker of that branch of the legislative body, serv- 
ing as speaker four sessions, including the extra session of 1862. It is a rare 
thing for a new member to be elected speaker, but while acting as chief clerk 
Mr. Benson developed rapidly, and exhibited great familiarity with parliamentary 
rules. That the house made a wise choice in the first place, is seen in the fact 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 205 

that Mr. Benson was repeatedly reelected. He is the onl)- man in Minnesota 
who has ever held the office of speaker four sessions. He was revenue collector 
for his district in 1870-72. At the election held in November, 1878, he was 
again elected to the leoislature. 

Mr. Benson was originally a democrat, with strong free-soil leanings; in 1848 
joined the " party of freedom," going for free-men and free-speech, as well as 
free-soil, and has been a republican since there was such a party. He often at- 
tends district and state conventions, and is greatly interested in the issues of the 
party. In his religious sentiments, Mr. Benson would be denominated liberal. 

His wife was Miss Martha Taft, of Mendon, Massachusetts; married on the 
5th of February, 1843. They have had seven children, two of whom have died. 



HON. LEWIS L. WHEELOCK, 

OWATONNA. 

LEWIS LOZENZO WHEELOCK, son of Lewis L. Wheelock, senior, and 
■^ Mary Howe, was born at Mannsville, Jefferson county. New York, on the 
I 2th of November, 1839. The Wheelocks were English, settling in Massachu- 
setts, whence the father of our subject moved to Vermont, and then to New 
York. Lewis lost his mother when he was only three years old, and his father 
when ten, rowing- his own boat after that age. He lived awhile with his paternal 
grandmother, working at farming eight or nine months in the )'ear, and attending 
a common school the rest of the time. just before he was seventeen he com- 
menced teaching a district school in Orleans county, New York, and after being 
thus employed three winters he became connected with the Macedon Academy, 
Wayne county, New York, where he continued to instruct till after civil war had 
burst upon the land. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in the i6oth New York 
Volunteers ; was mustered in as first lieutenant company B ; was subsequently 
promoted to captain company C, same regiment, and served a little over three 
years. At the battle of Opequon, near Winchester, on the 19th of September, 

1864, he was wounded in the right arm below the elbow, and was laid up for one 
month. The regiment was mustered out at Savannah, Georgia, in November, 

1865. The colonel of this regiment was Charles C. Dwight, of Auburn, since a 
judge of the supreme court of New York. W^ith this gentleman Captain Wheelock 



2o6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

re.ul law; came to Owatunna in Scptcinhcr, 1866, and was admitted to the bar 
the next year; went to Georgia, and lor eijrht or nine months was connected with 
the Freedman's P>ureau ; returned to the north, and in 1868 attended a full course 
of lectures at the Albany Law School, and then opened a law-office at Owatonna, 
here being in practice since that time. He is studious in his habits, thorough in 
his legal studies, and sound as a lawyer and as a man. His standing in the pro- 
fession, as well as in the communit\', is e.xcellent. 

Since locating in Owatonna \\v. has held several ci\il and political offices; was 
for awhile a member of the school board, and city attornc\- ; was judge of probate 
three years, and a member of the state senate in 1S76 and 1S77. During both 
sessions he was cTiairman of the committee on educalion, and served on the com- 
mittees on railroads, judiciary, university, and one or two" others. His modest 
worth in that body was well appreciated. 

In politics, Mr. Wheelock trains with th<^ republicans; in Masonry, is a knight 
templar ; and in religion, a Congregaticjnalist, a deacon of the Owatonna church, 
and superintendent of its school. The purity of his life is not questioned. 

On the 25th of |ul\-, 1S71, Miss Adalinc Burch, of Hillsdale, Michigan, became 
the wife of Mr. Wheelock, and they have three children. 



CHRISTOPHER CARLI, M.D., 

STILLWATER. 

CHRISTOPHER CARLI. thirty-eight years a resident of Stillwater, is a 
son ()t an Italian merchant, who lived in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, 
where the son was born on the 7th of f^ecember, 181 i, the mother being Catha- 
rine I^hamant Carli. The \-outh of Christopher was de\oted entirely to study; 
at sixteen he went to Heidelberg, liccaine a student in the Gymnasium, and 
afterward in the University, giving the best years of his life to literary and med- 
ical studies, leaving Heidelberg in October, 1831. 

A few days afterward Dr. Carli embarked at ISrcinuMi for America, in the 
Constitution, a sailing-vessel, and was eight\'-eight da\s on the voyage, reaching 
New York on the 8th of b'ebruar}-, 1832. Two months afterward, on the open- 
ing of navigation on the Erie canal, he started for Buftalo, New York, where he 
practiced till December, 1835, when he returned to Europe, and was absent from 
this country nearly two years. 



THE UNITED STATES BJOGRAPIIICAL DICTIONARY. 20 7 

(^n returning-, in 1S37, he wcnl to Chicago, and practiced there one season; 
visited New Orleans, Louisiana; returned to Chicago in 1839 ; came to Wiscon- 
sin Tc^rritory, now the State of Minnesota, reaching Great Cloud Isl;uul, on the 
Mississippi river, on tlic 13th of May, 1S41, and on the 29th of next month 
moved up to the head of Lake Saint Croix, t(_) the present site of Stillwater, lie 
and Major J. R. Brown Ijuilt, of tamarack logs, the hrst dwelling-house here, 
known far and wide, for twenty or thirty years, as the " Old Tamarack House." 
The logs were long; the house was two stories high, and large for those days; 
and a little later, the one solitary fiddle at times callctil a great many nimble chop- 
pers and other workmen, thoroughbred white people and half-breeds, to their 
feet in that old house. It was the scene of much innocent hilarity. 

Here Dr. Carli has jjracticed medicint" most of the time since the summer of 
1841, making, in the interim, two short lri[)s to "fatherland." At an early period 
his professional visits were often made to high families and to remote points. 
One ol his patients was a princess, daughter ol Little Crow, chief of the Sioux 
nation, his " head center" being sometimes in Washington, sometimes in Ram- 
sey, and sometimes in some other couniy. The Doctor has taken professional 
circuits which led him a hundred and hlty miles from home, though never that ilis- 
tance to save the life; ot any member ot a royal family. On one occasion he went 
to Red Wing, thirt\' miles of the distance on skates, to see a patient, an Lidian 
running ahead to see if the ice was safe. 

Dr. Carli opened the first drug-store in Stillwater; was in its f'lrst council, and 
was an early city and county physician. He opened the first bank in .Stillwater. 

The Doctor is .an inveterate democrat, of the Calhoun or states-rights school. 
1 le is a member of the Saint Croix and of the Minnesota State Medical Societies, 
and president of the former. Li 1859 Governor Sibley appointed him ijrigade 
■ surgeon of a brigade of the state militia. 

L^r. Carli was married cjn the 12th of March, 1847, to Mrs. Lydia Ann Carli, 
widow of Paul J. Carli, and hall-sister of Major Joseph R. ISrown, whose sketch 
appears elsewhere in this volume. Mr.s. Carli has had seven children by her pres- 
ent husband, only two of them, Socrates and ChristopIi(;r, junior, are living. Both 
are married, and their home is in Stillwater. 

Mrs. Carli is one of the best posted women on the "olden times" to be found 
in the Saint Croix valley, and decidedly a racy converser on the fashions, the 
amusements and the trials of frontier life. That famous " Old Tamarack House," 



2o8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

where she spent many days, had none of the stylish touches of modern art ; it 
was plastered with mud, and on whichever side of it a rain-storm beat the plas- 
tering disappeared, and had to be replaced when the storm was over. 

When she settled here with her first husband, in 1841, there were not a dozen 
white women in the whole present State of Minnesota. She sometimes passed 
six months without seeing an unadulterated Caucasian, and but for the excellent 
library of Major Brown, and that mirth-inspiring fiddle, there were snatches of 
time which would liavc dragged a very " slow length along." The raftsmen at an 
early day — called "water-rats" — were not very polished in manners, and did 
not suffer from extra culture of any kind, but the\' were good-natured, whole- 
souled, very respd?:tful to Mrs. Carli, and full of cheer ; and as at one period there 
was no white woman within four miles, she was glad to have the assistance of 
these jolly men in banishing "dull care," and verifying the adage of Cowper, that 

" Variety's the very spice of life, 
And gives it all its flavor." 



HON. LEONARD B, HODGES, 

SA/NT PALL. 

LEONARD BACON HODGES, secretary of the Minnesota State Forestry 
^ Association, and a purely " self made man," in the common understanding 
of the term, is a native of Ontario county, New York, and was born in the town 
of West Bloomfield, on the i 5th of July, 1823. He was a son of Lewis L. Hodges, 
a physician and surgeon in the war of 1812, who died in W^est Bloomfield, 1834. 
His mother was Susan Dunham Bacon, a sister of Leonard Bacon, D.D., and was 
born at Macinac, where her father was a missionary to the Indians, in 1803. -She 
received from the government a one hundred and sixty acre land warrant for 
services rendered by her husband in the war of 181 2. She died in Asiatic Turkey 
while a missionary, in 1857. 

The progenitor of the Hodges familv came from England to this country in 
1636; settled in Taunton, Massachusetts, and the original homestead and farm 
is in the hands of one of his descendants. Jonathan Hodges, the grandfather of 
Leonard, and tour or live brothers, were in the long struggle for independence, 
entering at Bimker Hill, and most of them participating in the battle ot York- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 209 

town. Earlier generations of tlie family were in the French and Indian wars. 
Good fighting blood has had an extensive circulation in this family. 

At thirteen years of age the subject of this sketch, believing himself capable 
of fighting his own battles, struck out for himself; went to New Haven, Con- 
necticut, and spent about eighteen months as clerk in a book-store ; did miscella- 
neous work until about seventeen ; then, feeling his need of more education, and 
being desirous of perfecting himself in the science of civil engineering, entered 
the English department of the Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts ; left at the 
end of about three months, and spent three or four years in surveying, teaching 
and farming, mainly in Saratoga county, New York; in 1845 came as far west as 
Rockford, Illinois, where he bous^ht a farm ; sold it in two vears and soueht the 
pineries of Wisconsin ; at the end of one season went into the mines of Grant 
county, in the same state ; in 1849 crossed the Mississippi river and settled on 
the " New Purchase," on the southern boundary of Allamakee county, Iowa; laid 
out the village of Hardin, partly in Clayton county ; was appointed United States 
deputy surveyor in 1851, and did considerable government work in Wisconsin, 
Iowa and Minnesota; in March, 1854, being smitten with the natural advantages 
and soil of Minnesota, he removed to Olmsted county and opened a farm, and 
started the town of Oronoco, his nearest neighbor being twenty-five miles away. 

During the Sioux outbreak in 1862 he raised a company for the Minnesota 
Mounted Rangers, but he was himself rejected on account of defective eye-sight, 
occasioned by too great a strain on them in surveying. 

Mr. Hodges continued to farm extensively and quietly until 1870. In that 
year, feeling outraged by the exorbitant freight charges of the Winona and Saint 
Peter Railroad Company, and believing there was remedy to be had through 
legislation, he consented to be a candidate for the state senate. He was a demo- 
crat, living in a republican district of fourteen hundred majority, and ran as an 
antimonopolist, against a very prominent man on the other side, and was elected 
by more than two hundred majority. On the " stump," during that memorable 
canvass, he took the position and ably advocated the doctrine that the people 
have absolute sovereignty over all corporations. He was the first man to pro- 
mulgate such political ethics in Minnesota, and won his victory on that ground. 
The victory was completed in the courts, after a severe fight of seven years' con- 
tinuance, the supreme court of the United .States deciding that the people are 
sovereion. 

o 



2IO THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In 1872 Mr. Hodges moved to Saint Paul, and since that date has been en- 
gaged very extensively in forestry. He is secretar\ of the State Forestry Asso- 
ciation, organized in January, 1876, and with remarkable energy and zeal is pros- 
ecuting his noble work. It seems easy and natural for him to fulfill the scriptural 
injunction to do with his might whatsoever his hands fmd to tlo. Whether sur- 
veying, school-teaching, lumbering, mining, pioneer town-building, farming, law- 
making, or tree-planting, he prosecutes his work with unremitting vigor, and does 
nothing in a slip-shod style. 

Mr. Hodges was first married in January, 1S49, to Miss Elizabeth Collins, of 
Iowa, she dying the next June. He was married the second time, to Miss Mar- 
garet B. RogersTof Saratoga count)-, New York, on the 27th of August, 1856, 
and of four children, the fruit of this union, only one child, Margaret Elizabeth, 
aged fifteen, is living. 

A brother of our subject, David ISacon Hodges, volunteered in defense of the 
American flag during the Mexican war ; was mustered in a Louisiana regiment 
at Baton Rouge, and was with General Z. Taylor on the Rio Grande; was hon- 
orablv discharged, and received a land warrant for his services. 

Mr. Hodges has spent no inconsiderable part of his life on the frontier; has 
had some hard battles with fortune ; but he started out with a liberal endowment 
of pluck, and the stock has never been exhausted. He has a man's head and a 
woman's heart, and in kindness and lil:)eralitv is a model neighbor. 



HON. T. H. ARMSTRONG, 

ALBERT LEA. 

THOMAS HENRY ARMSTRONG,lieutenant-governor of Minnesota from 
1866 to 1870, and one of the most prominent men in the southern part of the 
state, was born in Milan, Ohio, on the 6th of February, 1829. His father, Augus- 
tus Armstrong, a farmer, was from Connecticut ; his mother, whose? maiden name 
was Phebe Higbee, was born in the territory of Michigan. Thomas prepared for 
college in his native town; entered Western Reserve College, Hudson, in 1850; 
graduated four years later; taught one year in an academy at Berlin Heights, 
Erie county ; read law with Judge S. F. Tayler, of Milan ; attended the law school 
at Cincinnati in 1854-55 1 received a diploma from the same in the early part of 




^'^■^■$.^SS^^^ 





Syis'if 11 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 213 

that year; in May of the same year came to La Crosse, Wisconsin, and opened 
a law office ; the next autumn crossed, the Mississippi, and hung out his "shingle" 
in the embryotic town of High Forest, then in Mower, now in Olmsted county, 
and was there engaged in law and land business until about 1870, when he dis- 
continued legal practice. 

In 1873 Augustus Armstrong, a brother of Thomas, and a prominent citizen 
of Albert Lea, died, and the next year the subject of this sketch removed to this 
place and established the Freeborn County Bank, which he still manages, — one of 
the soundest institutions of the kind in this part of the state. 

As a business man, Mr. Armstrong is noted for his promptness and integrity, 
as well as brilliant success. His reputation in these respects is not only praise- 
worthy, but almost enviable, in these times of bankers' and other defalcations. 
He is a careful, far-seeing, shrewd operator. 

Mr. Armstrong has had a hand in no inconsiderable part of the legislation of 
the state, being a member of the house in 1864 and 1865, and presiding officer 
of that branch in 1863 and of the upper branch the four next succeeding years. 
As speaker of the house and president of the senate, he won the encomiums of all 
parties for his excellent parliamentary qualifications — thorough knowledge of 
rules, readiness, expedition and impartiality. He has a dignified appearance, 
much personal magnetism, and made a very popular presiding officer. He has 
represented Freeborn county in the state senate during the last four years, being 
one of the foremost men in that body ; was chairman of the judiciary committee. 

Mr. Armstrong was a democrat until i85i, when a blow was struck at the 
union of the states; he followed the lead of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, of whom 
he was a great admirer; gave his influence and his money to aid in putting down 
the rebellion ; and for the last seventeen years has been a firm republican, active 
in district and other conventions, in furthering the interests of the party. 

Mr. Armstrong is a church-goer, and liberal in his support of religious and 
benevolent institutions, but is connected with no christian organization. 

On the 1st of April, 1868, Mrs. Elizabeth M. Butman, daughter of John Bur- 
gess, of Cleveland, Ohio, became the wife of Mr. Armstrong. She is a member 
of the Episcopal church. 

Mr. Armstrong has a florid complexion, blue eyes, and a stout build ; is five 
feet six inches tall, and weighs two hundred pounds. He is polished in manners, 
as well as in mind, and has all the qualities of the true gentleman. 

2S 



2 14 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

His brother Augustus, of whom we have already spoken, settled in Freeborn 
county in 1857, and, like our subject, was noted as an excellent lawyer. He was 
a member of the Minnesota legislature, and was influential in getting the South- 
ern Minnesota railroad to Albert Lea. He was United States marshal of Min- 
nesota, appointed in 1869, holding that office four years. He died at Delavan, 
Wisconsin, on the iSth of August, 1873. 

Moses K. Armstrong, late delegate in congress from Dakota Territory, is also 
a brother of our subject. Edward G. Armstrong, another brother, is a lawyer of 
considerable distinction, residing at Bon Homme, Dakota. The family possesses 
more than an ordinary deiijree of talent. 



WILLIAM L. LINCOLN, M.D., 

WABASHA. 

WILLIAM LEAVITT LINCOLN, a physician and surgeon of long prac- 
tice and high reputation, was born in West Townsend, Middlesex county, 
Massachusetts, on the 5th of August, 1824, his parents, Leavitt and Sybil (Heald) 
Lincoln, moving to Ashby, in the same county, before he was a year old. Leavitt 
Lincoln was a farmer, and is still living, now in his eighty-thinl year, his residence 
being in New Ipswich, New Hampshire. He is a distant relative of Hon. Levi 
Lincoln, once governor of Massachusetts, and a cousin of Solomon Lincoln, United 
States marshal under appointment of President \'an Huren. The Healds were 
a New Hampshire family, the maiden years of Sybil Heald being spent at New 
Ipswich, Hillshoro county. Her father was Colonel josiah Heald, a prominent 
man of llial town. 

William was reared on his father's farm in Ashb)', and received his literary- 
education at New Ipswich. He read medicine with Dr. Alfred Hitchcock, of 
Ashbv; attended one course of lectures at the Berkshire Medical Colleee, Pitts- 
field, and three courses at Harvard University, receiving his diploma of doctor 
of medicine in 1850. 

After practicing three years at Winchenden, Massachusetts, being in very poor 
health, Dr. Lincoln started for the west, and after traveling a little, and then prac- 
ticing between two and three years in the Hospital for the Insane in Callaway 
county, Missouri, came to Minnesota, reaching Wabasha on the 4th of Jul)-, 1857. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 215 

Here he entered immediately on the general practice of his profession, continu- 
ing It constantly ever since. He came to the west nearly thirty years ago, to die, 
and has lived to prolong the lives of many others. Wabasha is directly on the 
western shore of the Mississippi river. The country on either side of this great 
stream was sj^arsely settled twenty years ago, and the rides of Dr. Lincoln were 
very long in those days, extending quite as far in Wisconsin as in Minnesota. 
Many a time he has gone from thirty to forty and a few times fifty miles, fording 
bridgeless streams and finding his way by Indian trails. He has always had an 
open ear to the calls of suffering humanity, and promptly responds, with little 
regard to pecuniary recompense. 

The Doctor is a member of the County and State Medical Societies, and has 
been president and vice-president of the county society, and vice-president of the 
state society. He was a member of the school board of Wabasha for several 
years ; has been mayor one term, and has held other offices In the municipality 
of the city. He Is faithful in the performance of every duty, official or otherwise. 

His politics are republican, but in that line he does little more than vote. 
His main study is given to medicine, he having a good library and a rich supply 
of fresh medical periodicals. He is a deacon of the Congregational church at 
Wabasha, and a man the purity of whose life is unquestioned. 

Dr. Lincoln was married on the 17th of October, 1855, to Miss Sarah P. Cut- 
ter, of Winchenden, Massachusetts, and they have one son, William H., a student 
in the State University at Minneapolis. She died in 1857. His present wife 
was Miss Elizabeth Baldwin, of x'\uburn. New York; married in 1861. 



HENRY G. SIDLE, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

HENRY GODFREY SIDLE, cashier of the First National Bank of Min- 
neapolis, was born on the 31st of July, 1822, at Dlllsburgh, York county, 
Pennsylvania. His parents were Henry and Susanna (Koontz) Sidle. His ances- 
tors, emigrating from Germany, were among the earliest settlers In Perry county, 
Pennsylvania, from where they afterward removed to York county. His grand- 
father Sidle was a musician In the American army during the revolutionary war. 
The Koontz family were also among the very early pioneers of Pennsylvania. 



2l6 THE UNITED STATES BrOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Henry G.,when old enough, attended the district school at Dillsburgh, but, as 
the educational advantages of the common schools in those early days were rather 
limited, he was afterward placed in a private academy in York, Pennsylvania, 
where he finished his school-days, as he did not attend college. After leaving 
the academy, he entered the store of his father, who was engaged in the mercan- 
tile business in Dillsburgh, and remained with him for fourteen years, after which 
he eno-ao-ed with his brother in the same business. As an evidence of the steady, 
industrious disposition of Mr. Sidle, it is worthy of mention that he was engaged 
in the same business, in the same store, for a period of twenty-seven years. Of 
course in this instance, as in all others where business ability and ijrudent habits 
are applied to one purpose, they were very successful in their enterprises, and 
amassed considerable wealth. In 1857 his brother, whose health had become 
somewhat impaired, returning from an extensive trip through the western states, 
very favorably impressed with the attractions of Minnesota, tried to persuade 
him to give up the old business, and embark in a new enterprise in the west. But 
Henry G., loath to leave the old home where he had become so firmly established, 
told his brother to go and try it alone for a few years, and then if his glowing 
anticipations were fulfilled, he would join him. His brother — Mr. J. K. Sidle, 
who is elsewhere sketched in this volume — firmly believing in the future pros- 
pects of the country which had so aroused his admiration, removed to Minneapo- 
lis, Minnesota, and established himself in the banking business. 

In 1861 Henry S., becoming convinced that the Utopian promises of the west 
were real, sold out his mercantile interests, and joined his brother in Minneapo- 
lis. Here he entered the banking business with his brother, and at the present 
time no one is better satisfied with the opportunities of Minneapolis, or more 
sanguine of her future prospects, than Mr. Henry G. Sidle. He has great faith 
in the resources of the state, likes the country, and likes the energetic spirit of 
the people. In 1869 he was one of the originators of the Minnesota Linseed 
Oil Company, a corporation which has proven very successful, and is now doing 
a large business, recpiiring from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand bushels 
of seed yearly. Mr. Sidle has been identified with the educational interests of the 
city, as a member of the .school board, for seven years. He has been connected 
with the Masonic fraternity since 1867. Is a member of the Presbyterian church, 
as is also his wife, and has been one of its trustees for the past eight years. 

Mr. Sidle was married at York, Pennsylvania, on the 30th of March, 1852, to 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 217 

Catherine S., daughter of Charles and Julia Kurtz. They have four children liv- 
ing : Hattie, born on the 21st of May, 1855, and married to Edward Barber, of 
Minneapolis, in 1874 ; Henry K., born on the 17th of January, 1857 ; Charles K., 
born on the 3th of August, 1859; '^'"'c' Susan, born on the 28th of May, 1862. 



SAMUEL S. WALBANK, M. D., 

DULUTH. 

ONE of the oldest physicians in the Lake Superior country, and one of the 
most thoroughly educated men of this profession in Minnesota, is Samuel 
Seddon Walbank, a native of Devon, England. He was a son of Mathew W. 
Walbank, who was educated as a barrister, but never practiced, and Susan Ann 
Keen, and was born in Moreton Hampstead, on the 3d of April, 1825. The 
Walbanks are an old Norman family, dating back to the time of William the 
Conqueror. 

When Samuel was nine years of age his father took the family to France, in 
order to educate the children, and there, in Saint Servans, the subject of this 
sketch remained until seventeen, giving his entire time to studying the ancient 
and modern languages, the mathematics, etc. In 1839 he crossed the ocean, and 
spent two years at Peterborough, in the province of Ontario; went to New York 
city in i84i,and articled himself to Dr. Otto Rotton ; read medicine and studied 
chemistry and other physical sciences with him for three years ; in 1845 returned 
to Canada, and articled himself to Dr. John Ardagh, of Holland-Landing, north 
of Toronto ; attended lectures in the Medical College in Toronto ; received his 
diploma in 1848; practiced two or three months at Holland Landing, and then 
received an appointment as surgeon of the Bruce Mines Mining Company on 
Lake Huron, Canada, where he remained three years. 

In 185 I Dr. Walbank located at Ontonagon, Lake Superior, Michigan; prac- 
ticed steadily until 1854, when he visited the old world, and spent a year or more 
in the hospitals of London and in attending medical lectures in Paris. Return- 
ing to the United States, he resumed practice at Ontonagon, and continued there 
for ten or eleven years, spending two or three winters, meantime, in the hospitals 
of New York city. In 1866 he removed to Brooklyn; practiced there a short 
time, and removed to Ingersoll, province of Ontario; in 1869 came to Superior 



2l8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

City, opposite Duluth, and in 1872 located in this city, where he is now the lead- 
ing practitioner, and where he also carries on the drug business. 

While in Ontonagon Dr. Walbank was county physician for fourteen years, 
and holds the same office now in Saint Louis county. He accepts no civil office 
except such as is connected with his profession. He belongs to the Minnesota 
.State Medical .Society. 

Dr. Walbank is a member of the Episcopal church ; was warden for some 
time at Ontonagon, and has been vestryman in different places. 

His wife was Miss Kate Elems, a native of Ireland; married at Bruce Mines, 
on the 27th of May, 1850. They have had ten children, only four of them now 
living, — Kate, Emma, .Samuel .Seddon, junior, and Edward Henry. 

While a diligent student of medical science, and painstaking in his efforts to 
keep pace with its progress, the Doctor also devotes some time to other branches 
of science. While in the mining regions of Michigan he became much interested 
in mineralogy and geology, and pursued these studies to a considerable extent, 
still dipping into them when he can command the time. He has also much taste 
for music, and especially instrumental, he being a skillful player on the violin. His 
daughters are experts at the piano, and the Doctor's is quite a musical family. 



WILLIAM H. LAIRD, 

WINONA. 

WILLIAM HARRIS LAIRD, of the firm of Laird, Norton and Co., 
extensive lumber manufacturers and dealers, is of .Scotch-Irish descent. 
His great-irrandfather, Matthew Laird, emio-rated from Ireland to this countrv in 
1765, and settled in Cumberland count)-, Pennsylvania. The grandfather of 
William, Moses Laird, married Jane Hayes, whose grandfather came from Ireland 
in I 730, and after living awhile in Chester county, Pennsylvania, moved to North- 
ampton county, in the same state. 

William is the son of Robert Hayes Laird, farmer, and Maria Nevius, and 
was born in Union county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of Februar_\-, 1S33. He 
worked on his lather's farm until about seventeen, attending a district school 
during the winters, at this period, and also a few terms at the Lewisburgh Acad- 
emv. He commenced his business life at the age of seventeen, as a clerk in a 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 219 

general store, at Clintonville, Clinton county, Pennsylvania, where he remained 
for five years. He came thence to Minnesota in 1855, reaching Winona on the 
1 8th of May. He with two brothers, John C. and Matthew J. Laird, opened a 
lumber of^ce. The next year James L. and Matthew G. Norton joined them, and 
from that date to the present time the firm name has been Laird, Norton and Co. 
The brothers of our subject withdrew from the firm some years ago. Matthew 
G. Norton, one of the leading- business men of the city, was treasurer of Winona 
county froni 1862 to 1868. 

In 1857 the firm built a saw-mill, with the capacity of about three million feet 
annually, enlarging it from time to time. In the winter of 1877-78 they tore 
down the old mills and rebuilt on a very large scale, their present mills having a 
capacity for twenty-five million feet. Minnesota has as fine saw-mills as the west 
affords, and we know of none more complete in all their parts than those of 
Laird, Norton and Co. They are the most extensive manufacturers of lumber in 
Winona, and their sales amount to from four hundred thousand to five hundred 
thousand dollars annually. Other parties in the same city are doing nearly as 
much business in the same line ; in fact, the lumber dealers of Winona are much 
the heaviest mercantile dealers in the place, and among its most solid men. 

The firm of Laird, Norton and Co. belong to the Mississippi River Logging 
Company, which is composed of fourteen or fifteen saw-mill and lumber firms on 
the Mississippi river between W'inona and Saint Louis. These firms represent 
a large amount of capital, and are probably doing the largest joint logging busi- 
ness in the United States. This company also own a controlling interest in the 
stock of the Beef Slough Booming, Log Driving and Transportation Company, 
the booms being located at Alma, Wisconsin, the mouth of Chippewa river, where 
the logs are assorted, sealed, and claimed by their various owners. 

The firm of Laird, Norton and Co. are large owners of pine lands on the 
Chippewa river, in Wisconsin, whence their extensive mills are supplied. 

Mr. Laird is a thorough-going business man, — a republican in politics, yet 
keeping out of office as much as possible, and giving to his business his first and 
prime attention. He is one of the trustees, and is vice-president, of the Winona 
Savings Bank. 

He is a member of the Congregational church, a deacon of the same, a trustee 
of the society, and very active in religious and benevolent, as well as public 
enterprises of a strictly secular kind. The poor find a warm friend in him. 



2 20 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Laird has been married since the 25th of March, 1856, his wife being 
Miss Mary J. Watson, of Lamar, Clinton county. Pennsylvania. Three of the 
four children, the fruit of this union, are living-, and are being educated, mainly 
in the excellent graded, high and normal schools of Winona. 



HUDSON WILSON, 

FARIIiAULT. 

HUDSON WILSON, banker, son of Orrin and Harriet (Winchel) Wilson, 
was born in the town of Concord, Lake county, Ohio, on the 10th of 
November, 1830. The Wilsons and Winchels arc Connecticut families, of whose 
pedigree beyond that but little is known. Orrin Wilson was a farmer, and reared 
his son in a knowledge of agricultural pursuits until sixteen years of age, when 
Hudson went to Painesville, the county seat, and became a clerk in a general 
store. He finished his education at tlie Kirtland Academy before entering the 
store, clerking till of age. 

In 1855 Mr. Wilson went to Madison, Wisconsin; for two years was there 
engaged in the hardware trade, and early in March, 1857, settled in Faribault. 
Here, in company with a cousin, Hiram Wilson, he opened a private bank, the 
firm of H. Wilson and Co., continuing for seven years without change of parties. 
In 1864 Hiram Wilson withdrew, and Zenas S. Wilson, a younger brother of our 
subject, took his place, the firm under the same name continuing seven years 
more. In 1871 the bank was changed to Citizens' National Bank of Faribault. 
IL Wilson, president, and Z. S. Wilson, cashier. Two years later the brother 
left the bank, and Charles H. Whipple is now cashier, the subject of this 
sketch still retaining the presidency. It is a wc-U-manageil, popular and very 
sound institution. Mr. Wilson has had more tliaii tw^mty years' experience in 
hanking, and is one of the best business men of his class in this part of the state. 
He is also a large stockholder in, and a director of, the First National Bank of 
Northfield, in the same county. 

He was chairman of the board of county commissioners for nine years, and 
is, and has been for some time, a trustee and the treasurer of the Institution for 
the Fducation ol the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, a state school, located at 
Faribault. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 22 1 

His politics are republican, strong and unwavering. He is a member of the 
Congregational church, and a trustee and treasurer of the society. 

The wife of Mr. Wilson, who was Miss Sarah B. Pease, of Painesville, Ohio, 
was chosen on the loth of January, 1855. They have three children, all daughters. 
The eldest, Lizzie L., graduated from Lake Erie Seminary, Painesville, Ohio, 
in 1878, and also attended one year at Wellesley College, Massachusetts ; Hattie 
is a student in Saint Mary's Hall, Faribault, and Carrie S. is attending the graded 
schools at home. 



JOHN H. MCKENNY, 

'^CHATFIELD. 

AMONG the older class of journalists in southeastern Minnesota, and a "man 
^ of mark" in this part of the state, was John Llarrison McKenny, who died 
at Chatfield, his home for twenty-two years, on the 23d of Maj^ 187S. He 
was a man well known in Iowa as well as Minnesota, having held positions of 
trust and honor in both states. He was born in Chambersburgh, Pennsylvania, 
on the 24th of October, 1813, his parents being Spencer and Sarah McKenny. 
Seven years later the family moved to Winchester, Virginia, where the father 
died in 1826, leaving the widow with seven children, — the youngest an infant. 
Two years afterward she took her family to Staunton, in the same state, there 
dying in 1829, when the subject of this sketch was sixteen years old. Up to 
this date he had had, in all, six months' schooling, and Vv'as now apprentice to 
Kenton Harper, of the Staunton " Spectator," to finish his education in a print- 
ing-office. He was to have worked for Mr. Harper five years, but in [833 was 
released from the contract and furnished with a good outfit. He worked at 
Marysville and Augusta, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio, and Saint Louis, Missouri, 
until 1837; in July of which year he went to Burlington, Iowa, and assisted 
Hon. James Clark — afterward governor oi that territory — in getting out the 
first number of the Burlington "Gazette." In 1839 '^^ became a partner in the 
publication of that paper. 

In October, 1842, Mr. McKenny was elected sheriff of Des Moines county, 
and by reelection served four years; 1846 was appointed ist lieutenant of a com- 
pany of volunteers to be stationed at Fort Atkinson, Iowa, during the Mexican 
war, he acting as quartermaster and commissary of the post till May, i<S4S, 



222 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

and wliile there had command ot the company in removing the Winnebago 
Indians from northeastern Iowa to northern Minnesota. 

In the autumn of that year he came to Minnesota to accept a place under 
Hon. Henry M. Rice in the American Fur Company, with headquarters at Crow 
Wing. The next year he was appointed sutler at Fort Ripley, where he also 
served as postmaster; leaving there in 1851, and again becoming one of the 
proprietors of the Burlington '• Gazette." He was joint owner of that paper till 
1854, when he was appointed, by President Pierce, receiver of the United States 
land office at Brownsville, Houston county, Minnesota, removing, two years later, 
with the land o^^cp to Chatfield. He was reappointed receiver and held the 
office until the spring of 1861, wht-n the republicans came into power. That 
spring he and his younger brothfer, James S. McKenny, purchased the Chatfield 
"Democrat," and conducted it till his demise, — his brother dying in 1867. 

In 1S61 Mr. McKenny was appointed justice of the peace, and served, by 
elections, till his death. In 1862 he was the democratic candidate for auditor of 
state, and in 1864 was the democratic candidate for state senator from Fillmore 
county, but the state and county being strongly republican, he failed of election. 
He was aid-tie-camp to General Sibley when he was governor of Minnesota, and 
held the same position under Stephen Hempstead when he was governor of Iowa. 

Mr. McKenny was a delegate to the national democratic convention in 1864, 
and acted as chairman ot the Minnesota delegation, and was appointed a member 
of the national democratic central committee, and in 1876 was ao:ain a dtdeeate 
to the national democratic convention. For man\- years Mr. McKenny was one 
of the leading men of his party in Minnesota, and through his journal exerted 
a great influence in local politics. 

It is stated in the Chatfield " Democrat," from which we g-ather most of these 
statements, that Mr. McKenny was one of the first two persons made Masons in 
what is now the -State of Iowa; that he was junior warden of Meridian Lodge, 
No. 56, Chatfield, two years; and high priest of North -Star Chapter, No. i i, the 
same length of time, and that in the Grand Royal Arch Cha[)tcr of Minnesota 
he served as grand deputy high priest and high priest. 

Mr. McKenny was first married at Saint Louis, Missouri, in November, 1834, 
to Miss Mary E. Duval, who had one child, and died in fuly, 1836. That 
child, Duval McKenny, is now a farmer in Fillmore county, Minnesota. Our 
subject was married the second time on the 3d of January, 1837, to Miss Mary 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



223 



Alethea Sleeth, a native of Virginia. She has had eight children, six yet living. 
Mary E. is the wife of H. R. Wells, of Preston, Minnesota; F"anny A. is the 
wife of James H. Waters, of Chatfield ; Kechequa is the wife of S. C. Clark, of 
Clermont, Iowa; Wenona is the wife of J. B. Cronk, of Chatfield; Sylvanus S. 
and Henry B., both married, are publishers of the Chatfield " Democrat," making 
it a strong exponent of the political principles which their father so long and 
so ably advocated. 



DANIEL D. MERRILL, 

SA/NT PAUL. 

THE subject of this sketch is a grandson of Rev. Daniel Merrill, of Sedg- 
wick, Maine, a Congregational minister in early life, and subsequently a 
Baptist, a hundred and forty-five members of his church changing their views 
and being- baptized in 1805. He had a family of thirteen children, and one of 
them, Thomas W., the father of Daniel, was a member of the first graduatino- 
class of Waterville College, now Colby University. He was also a member of 
the first class which graduated (in 182S) from Newton Theological Seminary. 
He became a home missionary in 1829, moving to Michigan and organizing a 
Baptist church in Detroit soon afterward. He was a leader in founding the first 
Baptist institutions in Michigan, and for many years was a very earnest worker 
for the cause of education, as well as of relig-ion. He died in Lansino- Michigan, 
on the 8th of April, 1878, aged seventy-six years. The .mother of Daniel was 
Sarah A. Oakes, daughter of Judge David Oakes, of Saint Clair, Michigan. 

At the time of Daniel's birth, on the i6th of February, 1834, the family were 
living on a iarm at Comstock, Kalamazoo county, from whence they afterward 
moved to Lansing. 

Daniel was educated at Kalamazoo, going as far as the sophomore year in 
college; left there with the intention of completing his studies at Madison Uni- 
versity, Hamilton, New York, but abandoned the idea of proceeding farther. 
While pursuing his studies, he learned the art of daguerreotyping, and followed 
it awhile, working during the evenings and vacations, thus supplying himself with 
the means necessary to enable him to pursue his studies. 

Immediately after leaving college, in 1855, Mr. Merrill came to Saint Paul, 
and was two years in a real-estate and the city treasurer's office. The season of 



2 24 ^-^^ UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

1857 he spent in Duluth and Oneota, having charge of the store and books of 
the mill of Mr. E. P'. Ely. In November of the same year he returned to Saint 
Paul, and was in the real-estate office of Folsom and Rohrer until 1S60, when he 
started in tlie book trade, in company with Charles H. Nichols, of Boston, Mas- 
sachusetts, putting in his time against fifteen hundred dollars capital. I>eginning 
on a small scale, and doing, perhaps, five thousand dollars the first year, the busi- 
ness has e.xtended from year to year, until he is now doing more than one hun- 
dred thousand dollars, he being alone in business since 1875, and having one of 
the largest and finest book-stores in the state 

During the }*ars 1873 '^o 1876, inclusive, the people of the state, through 
their representatives in the legislature, struggled to free themselves from the 
excessive burden of high-priced text-books, and finally, in 1877, a bill was intro- 
duced, creating a bureau of publication to prepare school-books. The senate 
committee to whom this bill was referred called on Mr. Merrill, as a man of great 
experience in this branch ot business, and asked his assistance in devising some 
plan which would accomplish the desired object, without the necessity of the state 
investing large sums of money in creating a printing and manufacturing estab- 
lishment, in order to secure school text-books at the least possible cost to' the 
people. Mr. Merrill, recognizing the importance of this measure of relief, ad- 
dressed himself to the duty assigned him, and after man)- consultations with the 
committee, the bill for "uniform and cheap text-books" was agreed upon. The 
committee named Mr. Merrill in the bill as the man to carry out the plan adopted 
in the law, which plan secured to the people their books at less than one-half the 
price they had been paying. The agents of the various school-book publishing 
houses endeavored in every way to defeat the passage of the bill, but it became 
a law, and is a matter of national notoriety. During the next year some of the 
book publishers and their agents made the most strenuous exertions to prevent the 
operation of the law, and at the session of the legislature in 1878, on Mr. Merrill's 
asking lor a slight technical amendment of the law, a concerted and desperate 
effort was made to defeat him and destroy the grand measure which saves hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars to the people. They owe this great saving, in a 
very large measure, to the perseverance and tireless energy of Mr. Merrill. 

He was a member of the school board of Saint Paul three or four years, — the 
only civil office of the least importance that he would accept. In politics, he is a 
republican, cherishing his political and religious sentiments with et]ual sincerity. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



!25 



yet giving religious duty the precedence over every other. Me is a member of 
the First Baptist Church, Saint Paul ; deacon of the same, and a man of the very 
best moral standing in the city of his adoption. His zeal in every good cause 
knows no abatement. 

The wife of Mr. Merrill was Miss Alice A. King, of Medina, Ohio ; married 
on the 20th of October, 1859, '^'""^^ ^^ '^^'^ children, the fruit of this union, four are 



JOSEPH K. MOORE, 

SAINT PETER. 

JOSEPH KNIGHT MOORE, publisher of the Saint Peter "Tribune," and 
J postmaster for many years, is a son of Levi and Sarah (Fisk) Moore, and was 
born in Enfield, Massachusetts, on the 17th of February, 1S28. His mother was 
a daughter of Captain Zedekiah F"isk, of Wendell, Massachusetts, he obtaining 
his title in the revolutionary war, entering it at sixteen years of age. Joseph 
received a common-school education, principally in Greenfield, Franklin county ; 
commenced learning the printer's trade in the office of the " Gazette and Courier," 
of the same place, in July, 1842, being in his fifteenth year, working at that busi- 
ness on the start steadily for ten years. 

In May, 1852, Mr. Moore started tor California, going from .Saint Joseph with 
ox-teams, there being-seventeen persons in the party; reached California in Sep- 
tember; worked a few weeks in minino- at Downieville ; was a short time in 
Nevada county, Nevada ; spent the following winter in mining at Grass Valley ; 
the summer of 1853 in Marysville, as foreman of the "Daily Herald"; in the 
autumn returned to Grass Valley, and purchased an interest in the Grass Valley 
" Telegraph," a weekly paper ; remained there about a year ; sold out and went 
to Georgetown, and there superintended the publication of the " Georgetown 
News" for six months, returning by the Nicaragua route, and reaching Massa- 
chusetts in May, 1855. The next three years Mr. Moore spent at Norristown, 
Pennsylvania, where he published the Norristown " Republican," and owned a 
book-store. Concluding to come west and continue the printing business, a slight 
incident brought him to Saint Peter, in the last of March, 1859, and he purchased 
a half interest in the Saint Peter " Free Press." In December following the office 

o 

and all the material were destroyed by fire. On the 8th of February, i860, he 



2 26 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

started the Saint Peter " Tribune "; sold the office to Williams and Henderson in 
November of the next year; purchased it back in June, 1869, and has continued 
its sole proprietor to the present time. Connected with the office is a fine job 
and book department. Under Mr. Moore's able management, for the last ten 
years the " Tribune " has been one of the most influential papers, outside the 
large cities, in the state. It is dignified and candid in tone, careful in its state- 
ments, and an excellent family newspaper. 

In the spring of 1861, a few weeks after Mr. Lincoln had become President, 
Mr. Moore was appointed postmaster at Saint Peter, and with the exception of 
three years, durin*^ President Johnson's administration, he has held the office con- 
tinuously until now. 

Mr. Moore is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. Politically, he was a whig in early life, transferring his con- 
nection to the republican party at the date of its foundation, and he has never 
wavered in his advocacy of its tenets. 

If we are correctly informed, Mr. Moore received a careful religious training 
in youth, but has never connected himself with any church. His moral character 
stands high, and as a citizen he is warmly esteemed. 

On the 1st of January, 1851, Miss Clara L. Hosley, of Greenfield, became 
the wife of Mr. Moore, and they have four children : Frank Leander, Fred Still- 
man, Flora Knight and Harry Edwin. 

The course of life of our subject was largely determined, no doubt, by the 
desire of his mother expressed on her death-bed, she wishing him to be placed 
in a printing-office. It was only a few months after her death that he commenced 
learning the trade. To him a sort of sacrcdness attaches to the business, while 
he owes to it his industrial discipline, most of his education, and, in a large meas- 
ure, his success in life. 

Mr. Moore had an elder brother, Edwin Luther Moore, who was a man of 
considerable prominence, and whose widow and three children reside in .Saint 
Peter. He was principal of Mount Joy Acadeni)-, Penns\l\ania, ten years, and 
went thence into the civil war as paymaster of volunteers, with rank ot major, 
receiving his aijpolntment through the influence of his friend Hon. Thaddeus 
Stevens. In October, 1864, Major Moore was captured by General Mosley 
while en route to Winchester, Virginia, to pay troops, and was robbed of sixty 
thousand dollars and his watch and clothing. He was released In the spring of 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 227 

1865, in impaired health, and never recovered. He was made lieutenant-colonel 
by brevet in 1867, being at that time engaged in settling soldiers' claims. He 
died in April, 1874. 



ULYSSES BISHOP SHAVER, 

KASSON, 

EDITOR of the Kasson (Dodge county) " Republican," was born in Craw- 
ford county, Ohio, on the 28th of November, 1827. When only eight 
months old his parents emigrated to Prairie Ronde, Kalamazoo county, Michi- 
gan, and settled on land unredeemed from the wilderness, and surrounded by 
hordes of swarthy natives of the Pottawatamie tribe. Engaged as the sons of 
pioneers usually are, the subject of our sketch sprang up into a strong, hardy 
youth, amid savages and a few scattering pioneers, surrounded by the wild and 
luxuriant scenery of that rich and fruitful region. His father soon discovered 
a taste for books in his son, a love of the sublime and beautiful, and a thirst for 
knowledge ; he therefore did all his circumstances would allow to encourage and 
gratify those youthful longings. Though necessarily engaged during the vernal 
season with his father on the farm, yet during the winter months he was sent to 
school, until the age of sixteen, when the pupil was considered a better scholar 
than the teacher. While on the farm, he wrote poems and essays, which were 
sought after by the village publisher, and praised as good productions. Soon after 
he had attained his majority he obtained instructions in a commercial college ; 
took Horace Greeley's advice and went west. 

He was married in Dubuque, Iowa, to Miss Mary Anna Beach, of Brooklyn, 
New York, on the 1 ith of October, 1850. There he resided for several years, 
working at government surveying, summers, and winters in a printing-ofifice, but 
rarely at the case. In the month of June, 1853, he removed to Hudson, Wis- 
consin, and commenced his labors as a journalist. In August, 1856, he disposed 
of his paper, " The Hudson North Star," which he had conducted with marked 
ability and success, and removed to Pepin, Wisconsin, where he engaged in sur- 
veying and real-estate business ; and during his residence at that place he con- 
tributed many articles of real merit and beauty to the leading periodicals of the 
day, among which were a number of poems that would do honor to poets of a 
national reputation. 



228 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

When the war of the rebellion broke out Mr. Shaver enlisted, but was rejected 
by the examining surgeon. He closed up his business, went to Minnesota, and took 
charge of the Wabasha " Herald," and wilh his pen did more for the cause of his 
country than he could have done with a sword. Soon after the close of the war 
he removed to Kasson, and engaged in the newspaper business, where he has re- 
mained sole editor and publisher of the Dodge county " Republican" ever since. 
His editorials are terse, polished and vigorous. 

He is a man of amiable temper, fine feeling, and possesses a well stored mind 
antl cultured imagination. Although a republican in principle, from old-line whig 
stock, his political articles have always been characterized with liberality, and 
fairness and courtesy to his opponents. He has never sought office, and during 
his career as a journalist has accepted but few positions of emolument and honor. 
He was postmaster at Pepin, Wisconsin, for a term of two years, and held the 
same position in Kasson a little less than six years. The former position he re- 
signed ; the latter he was removed from through the influence of Hon. M. H. 
Dunnc-ll, member of congress, — a salary-grabber, whose course Mr. Shaver would 
not indorse. He has also held two county offices in Wisconsin — clerk of the 
county board of supervisors and district attorney of Pepin county. He is an 
Odd-Fellow and I\.oyal Arch Mason, and an active worker in every benevolent 
and humane cause. 



THOMAS WELCH, 

IIENDERSO^'. 

THOMAS WELCH, a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, and a son of Patrick 
Welch, a car[)enter, was born in 1S30. Losing his parents while he was quite 
\'oung, he came lo this country when about fifteen years old. He brought with 
him a resolute heart, hands ready for any honorable work, and a disposition 
to save his earnings. He worked a few years at farming in McHenry county, 
Illinois, and in 1S53 visited Saint Paul, Minnesota. Being aciiuainted wilh 
Joseph R. P)rown, one of the energetic town platters, at his suggestion .Mr. 
Welch came to Henderson, whose town site Mr. Brown hatl made, aiul here he 
has remained for twenty-five years, applying his great energies to building up 
the town and securing a competency for himself At first he dealt in cattle, and 
filled contracts with the United .States government for supplies and transporta- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 229 

tion for troops on the frontier. Mr. Welch has been quite successful in his 
operations, commencing without a dollar, managing economically and prudently, 
and accumulating a handsome property, including three farms in Sibley county, 
which he cultivates by proxy. 

On the ist of January, 1875, he opened the Sibley County Bank, of which 
he is president, Hon. Henry Poehler being cashier. It is one of the most solid 
institutions of the kind in this part of the state, and has, as it deserves, the 
unlimited confidence of the community. 

Mr. Welch has served many years on the school board of Henderson, and 
has taken much interest in educational matters and other local enterprises, doing 
what he can to advance the welfare of the place ; but he has never, so far as 
we can learn, sought political preferment. He will work for others, if good men, 
but not for himself He is classed as a democrat, but will vote for no man whom 
he deems unfit for office. 

Mr. Welch is a Master Mason, and has held one or two offices in the order. 
He attends the Episcopal church, and socially and morally has a commendable 
position in society. 

On the 19th of February, 1856, Miss Susan S. Segar, of Maine, was joined 
in marriage with Mr. Welch, and they have nine children, — eight daughters and 
one son. Carrie, the eldest child, is the wife of Orrin Kipp, and Ida is the wife 
of William Komnick, both residents of Henderson. The others are single. 



AURORA W. GIDDINGS, M.D., 

ANOKA. 

THE oldest medical practitioner in Anoka, and a man of excellent standing 
in the profession, is Aurora W. Giddings, a son of Aranda P. and .Sarah 
Ives Giddings, who dates his birth at Williamsfield, Ashtabula county, Ohio, on 
the 2d of November, 1830. Both the Giddings and Ives families originally set- 
tled in Connecticut. Some of the Ives participated in the struggle for American 
independence, and the uncle of Aurora, Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, was in the 
second war with the mother country, enlisting at sixteen years of age. 

Our subject spent his boyhood and youth in securing an education, having, at 
times, a hard struggle to keep along and meet current expenses, paying, part of 
27 



230 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

the time, his l)oanI and tuition by solid work on a farm. When about seventeen 
he began to teach during the winter season, and thus supphed himself partially 
with funds. He ])reparcd for college in the schools at Jefferson, in his native 
county; spent two years in pursuing select studies in Allegheny College, Mead- 
ville, Pennsylvania; read medicine with Dr. C. Hamilton, of Williamsfield ; at- 
tended one course of lectures in the Buffalo Medical College; another at Albany, 
New York, and graduated in June, 1854. 

Dr. Giddings opened his first and only office at Anoka, reaching here on the 
last day of November, 1854 ; that office he has never closed. Twenty-three years 
ago Anoka hadj)erhaps ten families. The Mississippi valley above Minneapolis 
and the Rum River valley were very sparsely settled, and it was not an uncom- 
mon thing for the Doctor to ride from forty to sixty, and sometimes seventy and 
even eighty, miles. After a few years, as other towns sprang up, and other phy- 
sicians came into the country, his rides became shorter and less tedious. A few 
of the earlier settlers are still in the country; their partiality for Dr. Giddings 
continues, and though other men of skill have settled near them, a ride of thirty 
miles for him is not a very rare occurrence. No man of his profession in this 
part of the country attends more closely to his medical studies and his business, 
and no one enjoys a better reputation, either as a medical practitioner or sur- 
geon. He was selected by the governor as draft-surgeon during the rebellion, 
and for pension surgeon since. 

Dr. Giddings is a member of the Minnesota State Medical Society. 

The Doctor is a stanch republican, but very rarely accepts a civil or political 
office, having a plenty of work to do in his profession, and evidently believing 
that to do his work well, it must have his undivided attention. Medical science, 
like many other branches of science, is growing, and to keep pace with it, all the 
spare time at a physician's command must be given to it. Without constant 
study, the mind, in any profession, will gradually become dry and unfruitful, and 
yield but [)oor returns of thought or capital to its possessor. 

On the 19th of September, 1857, Miss Mary E. Simons, of Williamsfield, 
Ohio, became the wife of Dr. Giddings, and of seven children, the fruit of this 
union, six are living. 

The Doctor is six feet tall, stands perfectly erect, and has a cast of coun- 
tenance indicative of hard mental labor. Nobody would take him for anything 
but a scholarly and polished gentleman. In religious belief, he is an Episco- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 231 

palian, though not, we believe, a communicant. Those who have known him 
most intimately for nearly a quarter of a century, hold him in the highest esteem, 
alike for skill in his profession and the purity of his character. 



HON. W. H. GREENLEAF, 

BENSON. 

WILLIAM HENRY GREENLEAF, a pioneer in Meeker county, Min- 
nesota, and for whom one of its townships was named, was born in Nunda, 
Allegany, now Livingston, county. New York, on the 7th of December, 1834, 
his parents being William and Almira Sanford Greenleaf. The Greenleafs were 
French Huguenots, the progenitor of the family in this country coming over from 
England a few years after the Plymouth Colony, and settling in Massachusetts. 

In 1843, when William was about nine years old, the family moved to the 
west, settling on a farm at Koskonong, Jefferson county, Wisconsin, the son aid- 
ing to clear and improve the land, and supplementing a district-school education 
with an attendance of two or three terms at the Fort Atkinson Academy, in the 
same county. 

After leaving the farm, about 1853, Mr. Greenleaf followed surveying a couple 
of seasons ; was then employed as an assistant engineer on the Wisconsin Cen- 
tral railroad one year, and on the 21st of June, 1858, reached Meeker county, 
Minnesota, which was his home until a year or two ago. At that date there were 
about two hundred and fifty voters in the county, and but few of the towns were 
laid out. There were but two families in what is now Greenleaf township, which 
he assisted in laying out. 

He built a saw-mill, and operated it for three or four years ; then opened a 
store, and continued in mercantile business from 1864 to 1877, moving from 
Greenleaf to Litchfield, the county seat, in 1872. 

Mr. Greenleaf was county treasurer in 1860-62; was county surveyor from 
1864 to 1870, and a member of the legislature in 1870, 1871 and 1872. In Feb- 
ruary, 1874, he was appointed receiver of public moneys of the United States 
land office at Litchfield, and when, two years later, (October, 1876,) the office 
was moved to Benson, Swift county, fifty-five miles west, he accompanied it, his 
family, however, remaining- In Litchfield until the spring of 1878. 



232 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Greenleaf has always been a firm republican, taking a deep interest in 
the welfare of the party, believing that in its continued success lie the best inter- 
ests of the country. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Pres- 
byterian church. 

On the 27th of September, 1859, ^''•^ married Miss Cordelia Delong, of Cold 
Spring, Wisconsin, and they have two children living, antl have lost two. 

Mr. Greenleaf has some unimproved lands in Meeker count)', a house, a store 
building, and other property in Litchfield; and notwithstanding the "set-backs" 
which Minnesota has experienced since he settled in the state twenty years ago, 
with prudent aij^l wise management he has been moderately successful in his 
business operations, all of which have been conducted on the strictest principles 
of rectitude. 



LUKE MARVIN, 

DULUTH. 

AMONG the residents of this state, since about the time it became the Terri- 
*- tory of Minnesota, is Luke Marvin, now postmaster at Duluth. He is a 
native of Hinckley, Leicestershire, England ; a son of Luke Marvin, senior, a 
wholesale shoe merchant, and was born on the loth of June, 1820. His mother 
was Mary McArthur, and both parents were members of Robert Hall's church, 
Leicester, when that eloquent Baptist divine was in the height of his fame as a 
pulpit orator. The Marvins are an old dissenting and radical family. Mrs. Mar- 
vin was baptized by William Carey, the "consecrated cobbler" and pioneer Prot- 
estant missionary to India. 

The subject of this notice received only a common-school education ; aided 
his father in trade until of age ; then emigrated to the United States, and worked 
with an elder brother in the shoe business, at Danville, Kentucky, between three 
and four years; went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and was foreman in a shoe manufac- 
tory a year or more ; then engaged in the same trade for himself, and in that city 
and in Madison, Luliana, continued the business until 1850, when he settled in 
Saint Paul. There he was in the shoe and leather business eleven years, having 
a large trade, most of the time, for those days. 

While a resident of Saint Paul, he was a member of the city council three 
years, and its president the last year. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 233 

In 1861 Mr. Marvin was appointed register of the land office at Duluth and 
served eight years. During all this period, and for another year, he was auditor 
of Saint Louis county. He was a member of the legislature in 1871, represent- 
ing between twenty and twenty-five counties, his district being divided that ses- 
sion into six districts. 

Mr. Marvin was land and emii^rant agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad 
Company one year; was subsequently in the furniture business two years, and in 
September, 1875, was appointed postmaster. 

In politics, Mr. Marvin was originally a strong anti-slavery man, a disciple of 
Hon. Salmon P. Chase, and since 1855 has been an ardent and very active repub- 
lican. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and has been an elder for 
several years. The purity of his life is above questioning. 

On the 22d of October, 1856, Miss Mary A. Collins, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
became the wife of Mr. Marvin, and they have had ten children, eight of them 
yet living. The eldest son, Richard F., was postmaster at Duluth five or six 
years, and is now in the Cincinnati post-office. Luke Arthur, the next living 
son, is an assistant in his father's office. 

Mr. Marvin is noted for the interest he has taken in Duluth, and the influence 
he has exerted in building up the place. He is one ot the four or five men who 
were mainly instrumental in getting the railroad from Saint Paul to this point, 
the strife being between Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth. The head of the lake 
is the natural site for the city, and the resources of the country to the west and 
northwest will force Duluth into a grand future. 



HON. ALONZO C. RAND, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

ALONZO COOPER RAND, mayor of Minneapolis, son of Charles T. and 
k- Deborah F. (Sprague) Rand, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, on the 
31st of December, 1833. The Rand family originally came from England, and 
Charles T. Rand was a lineal descendant of Governor Bradford, of Massachu- 
setts. He, in 1838, removed from Boston to Buffalo, New York, where he en- 
gaged in his occupation of blacksmith. Here Alonzo attended the graded schools, 
and afterward the Gowanda Institute, thirty miles south of Buffalo. After leav- 



234 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

ing the latter school he engaged in tlie mercantile trade, in the employ of S. 
Dudley and Sons, at Buffalo. In i860 Mr. Rand entered business for himself at 
Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, where he erected the first works put u\) in that state 
for making refined oil. He remained there seven years operating in oil, and was 
very successful in his undertakings. In 1867 Mr. Rand removed to New York 
city, and while there he discovered the new process of manufacturing gas out of 
petroleum and its distillates — a kind of gas that is now being used by many of 
the large cities in this counlrw It is certainly one ot the most useful of recent 
discoveries, and one that has proved very beneficial to Mr. Rand, as well as to 
the people, for-it greatly widened the base of his prosperity. 

Futile attempts having been made to burn smoke, Mr. Rand, by a peculiar 
process, succeeded in not making any smoke, and therefore had none to get rid 
of. A company in Saint Louis are making his stoves; and a large manufacturing- 
company are preparing retorts for burning soft coal under steam boilers, both 
stationary and locomotives, in same place. 

In 1873 he removed from New York city to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where 
he has since resided, and busied himself in building tras-works in various cities 
and towns, conducting his works largely through his elder sons. When Mr. 
Rand came to Minneapolis it was his intention and desire to live a quiet, easy 
life, unconnected with any public office, and succeeded in doing so until the 
spring of 1878, when, during his absence in the city of Washington, District of 
Columbia, his fellow-citizens elected him mayor. Mr. Rand carries the same 
prudence, activity and energy which has characterized the management of his 
private business affairs, to the mayoralty, making an unusually efficient heatl of 
the municipality. He is one of the best business-men in the state; makes a 
splendid officer, but thinks it was rather cruel on the part of his friends to drag 
him from retirement and place him in the maj'or's chair, with all its perple.xing 
duties. 

Mr. Rand is, politically, a consistent believer in the doctrines of the repub- 
lican party. He has been connected with the Masonic fraternity for several years- 
Was married in September, 1853, to Miss Celine M., daughter of William John- 
son, of Buffalo, New York. Their union has been blessed with eight children, 
all living at present, with one exception. 

Mayor Rand stands six feet high, weighs two hundred and eight pounds, and 
possesses as fine a physique as one rarely meets. He has blue eyes, a sanguine 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 235 

temperament, and a fair complexion ; these attractions, combined with a very 
cordial address, make him withal a desirable friend and a deservedly popular 
citizen. 



HON. SOCRATES NELSON, 

STILLWATER. 

SOCRATES NELSON, a very early settler in Stillwater, and one of the 
town-builders of Minnesota, was a native of Conway, Franklin county, Mas- 
sachusetts, where he was born on the iith of January, 1814. He was a son of 
Socrates Nelson and Dorothy Boyden, honest and industrious people of Puri- 
tanic stock. His grandfather was Jeremiah Nelson, of whose family history 
nothing further is known. 

The subject of this sketch received a partial academic education at Deerfield, 
adjoining his native town, and became a merchant at Conway about the time he 
became of age. In 1839 he came to Illinois, prospecting and buying furs; the 
next year went to Saint Louis, where he sold goods and collected furs until the 
spring of 1844, when he came up the Mississippi river as far as the foot of Lake 
Pepin, opposite Read's Landing, where he had a trading-post at the mouth of 
the Chippewa river. It was long known as Nelson's Landing, since washed 
away. In the autumn of the same year he removed to Stillwater, still operating 
at the post below for several years. 

Mr. Nelson was in the mercantile trade here for ten or eleven years ; then 
changed to the lumber business, becoming jDart-owner, in 1853, of the saw-mill at 
Baytown, now called South Stillwater, three miles below the city, one of his asso- 
ciates in business there being Hon. D. B. Loomis. 

No inconsiderable part of Stillwater stands on lands which he entered and 
purchased of the government nearly thirty-five years ago. 

He was a county commissioner several times ; did more or less valuable work 
for the city in its council, and was a member of the state senate in 1858 and 
1859, serving on the committee on state prison, and other committees. He 
worked well for the interests of his adopted home and the young commonwealth. 
His politics were democratic. 

On the 23d of October, 1844, Mr. Nelson was married, at Hennepin, Illinois, 
to Mrs. Betsey D. Bartlett, of Conway, Massachusetts, two daughters being the 



236 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

fruit of their union. Ella A. died on the 23d of October, 1849, aged one year; 
Emma A. is the wife of Fayette Marsh, an attorney-at-law, of Stillwater. 

When Mr. Nelson came to Stillwater he built a house on Main street, using 
it at first for a store and residence. In that house he lived till his death, on the 
6th of May, 1867, the cause being consumption. He left his widow, the associate 
of his youth, and his companion for twenty-three years, in very comfortable cir- 
cumstances. Three or four years ago she and her son-in-law built a large and 
eleeant house on the bluff at the south end of the citv, with most delisjhtful sur- 
roundings, and there, with her daughter and family, she has her home. 

Mr. Nelson w^s public-spirited as well as enterprising, and, a few months 
before he died, tlonated to Washington county his half interest in the block on 
which the huee brick court-house now stands — an ornament to Stillwater. His 
energy, his counsel and his contributions contributed in no small measure to 
make Stillwater what it is, financially the most solid of the smaller cities of 
Minnesota. 



HON. WILLIAM D. WASHBURN, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

WILLIAM DREW WASHBURN, a native of Livcrmore, Androscoggin 
county. State of Maine, was born on the 14th of January, 1S31 ; the son of 
Israel Washburn and Martha B. 7iee Benjamin. He is a member of the widely 
known Washburn family whose history is so intimately associated with the polit- 
ical history of our countr), and whose first representative in America canie from 
England in the Mayllower. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the revo- 
lutionary war, while his maternal grandfather was a lieutenant, and during that 
struggle served under Washington the greater part of the time, and was with 
him at Yorktown at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. 

The father of our subject was the sixth son, and eldest born, in direct line, 
who bore the name Israel. He was a farmer by occupation. The Benjamin 
family, of which his mother was a member, came originally from Scotland, and 
early settled in the State of Maine, where it is widely known. 

William lived at home until he was twenty years old, working on the farm 
during summers and attending school during the winters. After leaving the dis- 
trict school he attended Gorman Academv ; later, he studied one term at South 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 239 

Paris, and finally completed his preparatory studies at Farmington Academy. 
In 185 1 he entered Bowdoin College, and graduated in 1854. While pursuing 
his studies in college he was almost entirely dependent upon his own efforts, 
and defrayed his expenses by teaching, winters, and working during vacations. 
During one vacation he was clerk of the house of representatives, under General 
Cullom. 

Having decided to enter the legal profession, Mr. Washburn spent the year 
and a half following his graduation from college with his brother Israel, at Orono, 
Maine, in the study of law ; later, completed his studies at Bangor, under the 
Hon. John A. Peters, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1S57. 

Availing himself of the opportunities which the then growing west offered to 
young men of enterprise, he removed to his present home, Minneapolis, and 
at once established himself in the practice of law. 

In the fall of 1857 he was appointed agent of the Minneapolis Mill Company — 
a corporation under the chief control of Governor C. C. Washburn, of Wiscon- 
sin ; during the following four years attended to the duties of his appointment, in 
connection with his law business. He afterward became more directly interested 
in the business of this company, and at the present time (1878) is a part-owner 
and director of the same. 

In 1861, having been commissioned by President Lincoln surveyor-general of 
Minnesota, Mr. Washburn removed to Saint Paul. Four years later, at the close 
of his term of office, he built a large saw-mill at Minneapolis, and engaged in the 
lumber trade, which has ever since continued, in a great measure, to engage his 
attention. 

A man of diversified attainments, fine executive powers, and untiring enter- 
prise, he has been satisfied to confine his energies to no single line of business, 
but instead has been and now is a leader and moving spirit in various public and 
private enterprises. In 1870 he was the chief mover in projecting and construct- 
ing the Minneapolis and Saint Louis railroad, the success of which is largely due 
to his energy and skill. Upon the organization of the company he became its 
vice-president; in 1875 he became president, which office he now holds, being 
also the largest stock-owner of the corporation. Mr. Washburn has, besides, 
been interested in other railroad enterprises, and at one time was a director of 
the Sioux City railroad. 

In 1872 he built at Anoka the finest lumber-mill in the state, and is now its 
28 



240 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



sole owner. In the following year he, with others, built the Palisade Flouring 
Mills, at Minneapolis, and is at present a part-owner of the same. 

He was one of the originators, and also a stockholder and director, of the 
Minneapolis Harvester Works ; is largely interested in planing-mills, and in fact, 
since his advent into Minnesota, has been either intimately associated in, or thor- 
oughly in sympathy with, many of the various projects whose end has been to 
develop the resources and increase the wealth of the state. 

In the growth and development of his own city he has taken special priile, 
and in matters of local interest has ever been ready to extend a cordial support. 

In apprecisition of his many services, and by reason of his peculiar fitness, his 
fellow-citizens have honored him with various positions of trust, and in 1S71 
elected him to the state legislature. Two years later, at the earnest solicitation 
of friends, he allowed his name to be used in connection with the governorship 
of the state, and although he was not given the nomination, his friends claimed 
that he was fairly entitled to it, and that his defeat was owing solely to an irregu- 
larity in counting. Mr. Washburn, however, was not disposed to investigate the 
matter, and it was allowed to drop. 

In his political views, he has always been a republican, and in all questions 
and matters touching the interests of the people, takes a deep and active interest. 

On the 5th of November, 1878, he was elected by three thousand majority to 
represent the third district in the national congress. This district embraces Min- 
neapolis and Saint Paul, and the entire northern portion of the state, making it 
the most important in Minnesota. 

In religious belief, he is a Universalist, but cheerfully allows to others who 
may differ from him the enjoyment of that freedom of thought and liberality of 
sentiment which he claims tor himself. In church matters, as in everything else, 
he is esteemed as a liberal, generous, "broad-gauge" man. He is also a mem- 
ber of the Masonic fraternity. 

Mr. Washburn was married on the 19th of April, 1859, to Miss Lizzie L. 
Muzzy, daughter of the Hon. Franklin Muzzy, of Bangor, Maine. Of eight chil- 
dren that have been born to them, four sons and two daughters are now living. 

Such, in brief, is an outline of the life-history of one who, by his own business 
energy, integrity, and force of character, has risen to a place of honor and esteem. 
Upright in all his dealings with his fellow-men, he has won the unbounded con- 
fidence and respect of all with whom he has had to do, while his frank, generous 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 241 

and gentlemanly deportment has drawn around him many true and devoted 
friends. 

Mr. Washburn lives in the enjoyment of an ample fortune, surrounded by the 
comforts and pleasures of a happy home, and is a fair example of that success 
which is the result oi true, conscientious and persevering' effort. 



FRANK BELFOY, 

LITCHFIELD. 

FRANK BELFOY, lawyer and journalist, is a son of Frederic Belfoy, con- 
tractor and builder, and Mary Rodier, both natives of Canada, and of French 
pedigree, and was born in Prescott, Province of Ontario, on the ist of November, 
1827. He received a common-school education in his native town, and there, at 
an early age, commenced reading law in the office of Read Burritt, afterward on 
the bench. About 1843 Frank went to Detroit, Michigan ; became an apprentice 
at the printing business in the office of the " Daily Advertiser," Morgan Bates, 
proprietor; left Detroit in 1845; worked a short time in printing-offices at Niles, 
Michigan, and Notre Dame, near South Bend, Indiana, and in 1846 located in 
Chicago, working at first in the office of the " Evening Journal," R. L. Wilson 
and N. C. Geer, proprietors. Subsequently he was" connected with the office of 
the " Daily Tribune," and still later with the " Daily Press," J. L. Scripps and 
William Bross, proprietors. 

Mr. Belfoy was one of the founders of the Chicago Typographical Union, its 
secretary at a very early clay, and its third or fourth president, presiding at the 
printers' festival the last time in 1855. 

After residing nine years in Chicago he went to Elkader, Iowa, in 1855 ; 
founded the "Tribune," the first paper published there, and the next year sup- 
ported the republican nominee for congress — Hon. Timothy Davis, of Elkader. 
Subsequently Mr. Belfoy edited papers at Waukon, McGregor and Decorah, 
Iowa, practicing law more or less at the same time, being admitted to the bar 
in 1858. 

In the spring of 1862 he came to Henderson, Sibley county, Minnesota ; prac- 
ticed there four years, holding, also, most of this time, the office of prosecuting 
attorney; published the "Cataract" at Minneapolis one season, as a speculation; 



242 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

sold out to eood advantaee, and in 1868 located at Forest City, then the seat of 
justice of Meeker county. In the autumn of that year he established the " News," 
editing it in connection with his lecjal practice. In 1869, when Litchfield became 
the county seat, he came with his paper to this place ; sold out soon afterward to 
Frank Day^gett and \\'. D. fourbcrt; gave his undivided time to his profession 
until Mr. Daggett dictl, in 1876, when lie bought back a half interest in the " News 
Led(i-cr," and is now of the firm of Belfoy and Joubert, Mr. Belfoy attending to 
the editorial department. It is an inlluenlial republican paper. At the same 
time he has a remunerative law practice, and a good standing in the profession. 
It is almost suqirising that, with his multiplied cares as a journalist, he has been 
able to reach his present position as an attorney. He excels as a criminal lawyer 
on the side of the defense, having masterly skill and great success in managing 
such cases. His law library, though not large, is well selected and choice, and 
he makes good use ot it. 

While a resident of Chicago, in |anuary, 1848, Mr. Belfoy married Mrs. Octa- 
via A. Beers, a sister of Professor H. B. Gatchell, of Ann Arbor, Michigan ; she 
died at Litchfield, on the 3d of August, 1874, leaving one child b)' her first 
husbanil. 



REV. DAVID BURT, 

SAIXr J'AUL. 

DA\'in BURT, state superintendent of public instruction, son of John Burt, 
a builder of cotton-factory machinery, was born in Munson, Massachusetts, 
on the 2d of August, 1822. The maiden name of his mother was Rachel Burden, 
who was of Welsh pedigree. The Burts were from England, and settled in Ran- 
dolph, Massachusetts, the subject of this sketch being about the fifth generation 
born in this countr)'. When this son was about si.x years of age, his father, with 
a view to the welfare of the family, abandoned his occupation as a machinist, and 
settled on a farm in Worcester county, Massachusetts. It used to be said of the 
boy that he ilid with his might whatever he undertook ; and those acquainted 
with the man affirm that he has not outgrown this characteristic. Early in life 
he determined to secure the best education within his reach, and was distin- 
guished as a faithful and proficient scholar while a mere boy. In the common 
school of his district he studied algebra, and obtained considerable knowledge of 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 243 

Latin eranimar. At the aoe of nineteen he was encraaed to teach this school, in 
which he had been a pupil, and success attested the respect in which he was held 
by his young associates. From that time he taught school every season for ten 
years. In the spring of 1843 he entered Wilbraham Academy, Massachusetts, 
where he prepared for college. He entered the junior class of Oberlin in 1846, 
teaching two winters in Ohio, and graduating with his class in honorable distinc- 
tion. During- his student life he succeeded in securing o-ood wacjes as a teacher. 
In this capacity he earned about five hundred and fifty dollars while pursuing his 
academic and college studies. During the last year at Oberlin he was tutor in 
mathematics in the young ladies' department, teaching at least an hour each day. 
After receiving his collegiate degree he spent three years in the Theological 
Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 185 1. 

In the autumn of the latter year he married Fanny B. Rice, and became 
pastor of the Congregational church of Raymond, New Hampshire. Their first 
child is buried in that place, another at Winona, Minnesota, and two are still 
living. In the spring of 1855 he resigned, on account of bronchial difficulty, 
purposing, on the recommendation of his physician, to try the inland climate of 
the west. After a brief respite from labor, having occasion to supply the pulpit 
of the Congregational church at Rutland, Massachusetts, a few Sundays, he was 
persuaded to remain until the autumn of 1S57. The next winter he taught a 
select school in Chicago, designing to go farther west in the spring. 

In May, 1858, Mr. Burt removed to Winona, Minnesota, under call of the 
Congregational church. Soon after he was appointed superintendent of the pub- 
lic schools in that city. In 1859 he was made a member of the prudential board 
of the State Normal School, located here. He also served as a county examiner 
of common-school teachers, and was an original member of the State Teachers' 
Association, organized about that time. 

In August, 1866, Mr. Burt was appointed by General Howard on the staff of 
General Clinton B. Fisk, commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau at Nashville, 
Tennessee. The duty assigned him in this position was that of general superin- 
tendent of the colored schools of the state, which schools were then under the 
charge of the bureau. The climate of the south proving unfavorable to his 
health, he resigned after about two years of service, and returned to Minnesota. 
In the autumn of 1868, and the winter following, he supplied the Plymouth 
Church of Minneapolis, in the absence of its pastor, then in Europe. While on 



244 1'^^ UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

a visit in Massachusetts he was prostrated, in the autumn of 1869, by a severe 
hemorrhage of the hmes. While in that condition Mr. Burt was informed that 
he had been appointed superintendent of schools for the county of Winona, Min- 
nesota. In the spring of 1870 he entered upon the duties of this office, with 
slowly improving health. In 1875 he had so far recovered that he accepted the 
office of state superintendent of public instructions, to which he was appointed 
by the governor. His fitness for this position is genf'rally recognized. He suc- 
ceeds as a lecturer upon education, and the teachers' institutes and the schools of 
the state are improving under his management. Earnest in purpose, and with 
no high(-r ambition than to advance the schools under his charge, Mr. Burt de- 
serves the general confidence and respect which he has secured in his present 
office. 



HON. JOHN A. REED, 

STILLWATER. 

TOHN ABBOTT REED, warden of the Minnesota prison, and a native of 
' Grafton, Grafton county. New Hampshire, was born on the 25th of Decem- 
ber, 1831. His parents, John P. and Clementine (Abbott ) Reed, belonged to the 
farming community, the father dying when the son was about seven years old. 
He then went to live with his grandfather in -Sutton, Merrimac county, remain- 
ing there until of age; engaged, most of the time, in agriculture. He received 
his education at the Andover (New Hampshire) Academy, spending, at sundry 
times, about three years there in study, teaching in the winters. 

About 1854 Mr. Reed immigrated to Iowa, settling at Monona, Clayton county, 
still engaged in teaching in the winter season, and tilling land the rest of the 
time. In 1858 he moved northwestward into Sterling, Blue Earth county, Min- 
nesota, where he bought land and farmed steadil)- until November, 1861, when 
he enlisted as a private in company I, 5th Iowa Cavalry, afterward detached and 
known as Brackett's battalion, Minnesota Cavalry. He served three years at the 
south, and between one and two years on the western frontier, having been pro- 
moted from time to time, and being mustered out as cajjlain in June, 1866, having 
been nearly four and a half years in the service. 

On returning to Blue Earth county. Captain Reed resumed farming ; was 
elected to the legislature the first autumn that he was at home, and by reelections 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 245 

served three consecutive sessions. He was on important committees and at- 
tended very faithfully to his legislative duties, none being more industrious than 
he. On the 16th of July, 1874, he was appointed warden of the state prison, still 
filling that office very much to the satisfaction of the people. He is a man of a 
kindly disposition and treats the inmates humanely, yet discreetly. It is doubt- 
ful if a better man for the office he holds can be found in the state. 

Warden Reed has always been a republican, and usually quite active in poli- 
tics. He is a man of a good deal of magnetism, and has much influence in political 
as well as other circles. He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity. 

His wife was Miss Rachel France, of Hudson, La Porte county, Indiana; 
chosen in March, 1856. They have four children living and have buried two. 



DR. GEORGE H. KEITH, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

GEORGE HACKETT KEITH, postmaster of Minneapolis, is a native of 
Randolph, Orange county, Vermont, and was born on the 4th of May, 
1825. His parents were Bethuel and Mary (Pearson) Keith. Though there 
are no reliable family records from which to gather details, data, etc., yet the 
Doctor knows that his forefathers immigrated to this country very early in the 
seventeenth century, and that he is the seventh generation descended from 
" Priest" Keith, who was a noted Presbyterian preacher in .Scotland at an early 
day. The family first settled in Massachusetts, from whence Bethuel Keith 
moved to Vermont, when he engaged in the occupation of farming. The Pear- 
son family were also among the very early pioneers of the new world, and both 
families are remarkable for extreme longevity, attaining usually from eighty to 
one hundred years, unless attacked by some fatal infectious disease. Among the 
earliest recollections of George H. is hearing his grandfather Pearson relate in- 
cidents of his service in the continental army. 

George H. Keith derived what benefits were to be obtained from the district 
school of Randolph until reaching his sixteenth year, when he struck out to win 
his way in the world. His first move after leaving home was to hire out to a 
farmer for seven dollars a month ; worked tor him one season and then went to 
Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, New Hampshire, where between study- 



246 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

ing and teaching' he spent about four years. Having a desire to visit the west, 
whither emigration was fast flowing, he came to Indianapolis, Indiana, and en- 
o-ao-ed in teaching a private school for one year. At the end of this time Mr. 
Keith received the appointment of superintendent of the preparatory department 
of Franklin College, situated at Franklin, Indiana, — a position which he filled for 
one year. He then returned to the east and began the study of medicine with 
his brother Bcthuel, at Dover, New Hampshire. 

Mr. Keith continued his studies, attending lectures and practicing more or 
less, until iSs2, when he graduated from the medical college at Woodstock, Ver- 
mont, and removed to the city of New York, where he began to practice, in the 
meantime pursuing his studies, paying considerable attention to dentistry. After 
livincT in New York about two years, he, early in 1855, decided to emigrate and 
settle permanently in a western home. Having two brothers residing in Min- 
neapolis, Minnesota, he made that his objective point ; but for the benefit of his 
wife's impaired health they traveled through many of the southern and western 
states on their way thither, landing at Saint Paul on the loth of August, and 
immediately proceeding to Minneapolis by stage. Here Mr. Keith has continued 
to reside with the exception of 1859-60, when, owing to the ill-health of Mrs. 
Keith, he again accompanied her on a southern trip. They were in Mississippi 
when the act of secession was passed, but finding the climate altogether too 
warm for the Doctor's politics, they returned home at once. In Minneapolis 
Dr. Keith commenced the practice of dentistry and medicine, but devoted his 
attention almost entirely to the former. Was a member of the first state legis- 
lature of Minnesota, which met in 1858-59. During the Indian war in 1S62 he 
was appointed surgeon of the Indian expedition sent to the relief of Fort Aber- 
crombie. In 1S63 he received the appointment of provost-marshal for the second 
district of Minnesota, — a jjosition which he retained until the close of the war. 
He then resumed his practice, which continued until he was conunissioned post- 
master by President Grant in May, 1871. and reappointed in 1875. In ot'fice, 
Dr. Keith conducts the affairs of the public in the same spirit of prudence, energy 
and activity that he would his private business, and consequently makes a post- 
master against whom there are no complaints. 

In politics, he was originally a whig, and afterward a strong republican, always 
taking an active interest in political matters. He has been connected with the 
Masonic fraternity for twenty years, and is at present a Knight Templar. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 247 

The Doctor and Mrs. Keith are both members of the First Baptist Church 
of Minneapolis. 

He was married on the 2d of July, 185 1, at IndianapoHs, Indiana, to Miss 
Anna Judson, daughter of Dr. Jonathan Going, D.D., president of Granville 
College, Ohio; she died on the 28th of August, 1862. At Minneapolis, on the 
30th of June, 1863, he was wedded again, to Henrietta P., daughter of S. A. and 
Dora P. Jewett. Dr. Keith has three children living, as follows : Walter J., born 
on the 17th of August, 1866; Mabel C, born on the 30th of October, 1870, and 
Max Le Roy, born on the loth of June, 1S73. 



PROF. DAVID L. KIEHLE, A.M., 

SAINT CLOUD. 

DAVID LITCHARD KIEHLE, principal of the Saint Cloud Normal 
School, is a son of James Kiehle, tanner by trade, and Elizabeth Litchard, 
and was born in Dansville, Livingston county, New York, on the 7th of Febru- 
ary, 1837. His paternal great-grandfather came from Germany and settled in 
Pennsylvania, and his grandfather was a short time in the continental army. 

Professor Kiehle spent his youth in the graded schools of Dansville ; began 
to teach at sixteen years of age, attended the State Normal School at Albanj', 
and graduated in 1856; taught three years in the Canandaigua Academy, entered 
the junior class of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1859, and graduated 
in 1861, one of the "honor" members of the class. While in college, in addition 
to the classical course, he connected himself with the laboratory and took a 
special course in chemistry. 

Professor Kiehle taught a graded school in Monroe, Michigan, during the 
year 1862 ; then took a full course of studies in the Union Theological Seminary; 
was graduated in 1865 and ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. While pre- 
paring for this work he taught in the Polytechnic and Collegiate Institute in 
Brooklyn, in all nearly three years. 

In 1865 he came to Minnesota, organized a Presbyterian church at Preston, 
Fillmore county, became its pastor and remained there ten years. During the 
last six of those years he was county superintendent of schools, driven into that 

work on account of poor health. By riding on horseback from school to school, 

29 



248 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

and from town to town, he gradually improved, and was able to fill the require- 
ments of the office. During five of these years that he was superintendent he 
preached once a day on Sunday, simply supplying the pulpit without doing 
pastoral work. The last three years that he was at Preston he was one of the 
directors of the state normal schools; in 1875 was appointed by the board to 
take charge of the normal school at Saint Cloud, and is now in the fourth year 
of his labor here. He has all the elements of a successful teacher, — thorough 
scholarship, good organizing faculties and executive qualities, kindness of heart, 
yet firmness of purpose, and the happy faculty of encouraging students in their 
intellectual wofk and making them self-reliant. He has the warmest esteem of 
the communit)- as well as the students. 

While perfect master of every branch taught in the school, Professor Kiehle's 
specialties are mental science, school economy and Latin. The subject of educa- 
tion seems to be the one absorbing theme with him. His best thoughts, his 
time, his energies, are devoted to the questions. What is modern education, and 
how can it be made available and practical in the philosophy and theories of the 
day? He is a very "hard student" and a progressive man. 

On the 25th of July, 1864, Miss Mary Oilman, of Dansville, New York, was 
married to Professor Kiehle, and they have three children. Mrs. Kiehle is a 
lady of fine culture and thorough education, and in a very quiet way is doing 
some literary, and her share of christian and benevolent, work. 



J 



HON. JOHN H. BROWN, 

WILLMAR. 

OHN HARRISON BROWN, judge of the twelfth judicial district, is a son 
of Luther Brown, farmer, and Sophia Morse, his wife, his birth dating at 
Mount Holly, Rutland county, Vermont, on the ist of May, 1824. He comes 
of good fighting and patriotic stock, his grandfather, William Brown, being in 
the first war with England, and his father in the second, the one fighting for 
independence, the other for " sailors' rights." Luther Brown died when John 
was about four years old, and the widow moved with her family of five children to 
Fishersfield, now Newbury, Merrimack county, New Hampshire, and the subject 
of this brief sketch spent most of his boyhood on a farm, earning his own living 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 249 

after reaching his ninth year, with no educational privileges but those of a district 
school, until of age. He then attended a private or select school in Manchester, 
New Hampshire, two or three terms, at the close of which period he commenced 
teaching, at the same time studying law. He read in the office, first, of George 
Barstow; then of A. F. L. Norris, both attorneys in Manchester; in 1855 immi- 
grated to Minnesota; was admitted to the bar at Carver, in June, 1856; prac- 
ticed at Shakopee until 1871, and then settled in Willmar. He established the 
Willmar " Republican," and conducted it three years, being engaged, also, at the 
same time, in legal business, and here, as at Shakopee, having a good practice. 

In 1864 Mr. Brown was appointed assistant quartermaster, with the rank of 
captain, serving two years, with headquarters at Madison, Wisconsin. 

During most of the time that he was a resident of Shakopee (1855 to 1871) 
he was in the school board, doing good work for the cause of education. He was 
also attorney for Scott county in i860 and 1861, and another term in 1869 and 
1870. He has likewise been attorney for Kandiyohi county one term ; in March, 
1875, was appointed, by Governor Davis, judge of the newly created twelfth dis- 
trict, and at the general election in November following was elected for the full 
term of seven years, which will expire with the year 1882. He possesses those 
qualities which make a good jurist, — a thorough knowledge of law, candor, con- 
scientiousness, coolness, impartiality and honesty. A lawyer in his judicial dis- 
trict remarked, not long ago, that Judge Brown has two sons practicing before 
him, and yet, said this gentleman, " I would just as soon appear against them as 
against one of his most bitter enemies." The Judge has the respect of every 
honorable member of the bar in his district, which is large. It embraces ten 
counties, with courts held in eight of them, and he travels about twenty-five hun- 
dred miles a year, one-fourth of it on carriage roads. 

Judge Brown was originally a democrat, with free-soil leanings, following the 
lead of John P. Hale until the great party of freedom, with Fremont and Dayton 
for banner-bearers, was fully organized in 1856. The Judge still trains in that 
party, being careful, however, not to soil the ermine by blind zeal for its interests. 

He was made a Mason in 1856; is now a Royal Arch; was master several 
years of the lodges at Shakopee and Willmar, and has been senior deacon of the 
Grand Lodge of Minnesota, and district deputy grand master of the eighth dis- 
trict of the state. 

The wife of Judge Brown was Miss Orissa Maxtield, of Goshen, New Hamp- 



i50 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

shire, their union taking place on the 5th of February, 1850. They have seven 
children, all single but the eldest son, Horace \\'., who lives in Willmar. The 
names, of the other children are Frank Kossuth, aged twenty-seven ; Calvin 
Lutlier, twenty-five; Emily Idella, twenty-two; Dorrie F. S., twenty; Jenny 
Liona, eighteen; and Mattie A., sixteen years. 



HON. B. A. LOWELL, 

-5L WASECA. 

BENJAMIN AVER LOWELL, son of Rufus and Rachel (Ayer) Lowell, 
and a native of Waldo county, Maine, was born in the town of Freedom, 
on the 25th of November, 18 18. Both of his grandparents were in the war for 
independence, and his father was in the second war with the mother country. 
Benjamin was the eldest of three children, and lost his father when the son was 
eight years of age. He was reared on a farm, and subsequently learned the 
trade of a ship-carpenter, at which he worked in the summer season for many 
years. He finished his education at the Freedom Academy; taught district 
schools twenty-two terms (often two in a year), and a year and a half as an 
assistant in the Freedom Academy. He was for years one of the most suc- 
cessful and popular teachers in Waldo county. 

In 1858 Mr. Lowell came to Waseca county, Minnesota; was a merchant two 
years at Wilton, the old county seat; moved on a farm in the spring of 1861, 
in the town of Otisco ; improved it until the spring of 1876, and then settled 
at Waseca. Here for two or three seasons he has cultivated a market orarden 
and filled the office of village justice, being a very industrious, correct and trust- 
worthy man, respected by all who know him. 

Mr. Lowell was chairman of the boartl of county commissioners two terms, 
while on his farm, and was state senator, representing Waseca, Freeborn and 
Steele counties in 1866 and 1867, his being the sixteenth district. He was 
chairman of the military and towns and counties committees, and on two or 
three others, doing much more work than talking. He was strongly in favor 
of the measure requiring railroad companies to pay taxes on their lands as 
soon as the title was received from the state, and used his best influence to 
get the normal schools located at Mankato and Saint Cloud. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 251 

He was originally a whig, and cast his first vote for General Harrison for 
President in 1840. Since 1856 he has been a republican. 

He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and steward of the 
same, being an active christian, a man of the purest character, and one of the 
best citizens of Waseca. 

Mr. Lowell was first married in April, 1842, to Miss Martha A. Webster, of 
Unity, Maine. Her father was a cousin of Daniel Webster. She had seven 
children, and died in June, 1858. Only two of her children are living. The 
eldest child, Alvano V. Lowell, became a lieutenant in a colored regiment at 
New Orleans before he was eighteen years old, and was mustered out as major. 
He afterward fitted himself to enter the junior year in college, and then died 
of disease contracted in the army. He was a noble christian man, preparing 
for the Methodist ministry. 

One of the two surviving children by the first wife, Lizzie, is the wife of 
Samuel H. Glidden, of Waseca. The other child, Ida, is sinole, and livino- in 
Boston, Massachusetts. His second wife was Mrs. Sarah A. Lincoln, of Otisco; 
married in November, 1859. He has had five children by her, only two of them 
now living, — Benjamin A., aged seventeen, and Sarah M., aged eleven years. 



HENRY J. HORN, . 

SAINT PAUL. 

HENRY JOHN HORN is of Swiss descent on his father's side, his grand- 
father coming over from that country when a young man, and settling in 
the " Keystone State" probably before the American revolution. The parents of 
Henry were John Horn, in early life a carriage-maker by trade, and Priscilla 
Fentham, who was of English pedigree. John Horn was a man of considerable 
influence, a prominent democratic politician, a good deal in public life, and at 
one time the naval officer in the custom-house, Philadelphia. A brother of 
his, Henry Horn, was a member of congress from Pennsylvania some time during 
the administration of General Jackson, and at one time collector at the port of 
Philadelphia. 

The subject of this brief sketch was born, reared and educated in the city 
of Philadelphia, his birth being dated March 25, 1821. After receiving a good 



252 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

knowledge of the common English branches and the classics, he entered the 
law office of Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, attorney-general of the United States, 
under Mr. Van Buren ; read law diligently for about three years and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1849, ^'"^d practiced there till June, 1855, 
when he settled in Saint Paul. Here at one time he was the law partner of 
Reuben B. Galusha, at another of W. W. Billson, now United States district- 
attorney, but for the greater part of the time has been alone. Of late years he 
has made a specialty of real estate and railroad practice, and has always done 
a remunerative practice. He has long occupied a place in the front rank ol the 
Minnesota barr By the breadth of his professional learning, by his conscientious 
fidelity to court and client, he has, by common consent, earned the high reputa- 
tion which he enjoys. He has, no doubt, exercised a wholesome and lasting 
influence upon the jurisprudence of the state. In the thoroughness of his learn- 
ing in the law of real estate, he is regarded as second to none ; yet the character- 
istic in which he is even more distinguished is the ready and impartial skill with 
which, in his usually varied practice, he ranges through all the different depart- 
ments of law. 

Mr. Horn is a good example of the success which attends untiring industry, 
unswerving rectitude of purpose, and studies directed to a single end. He is 
one of the closest students in the city of Saint Paul. He went into the law 
from a love for the profession, and that love does not seem to have abated. 
When not otherwise engaged, he is poring over his books. He has a taste for 
classical studies, in which he freely indulged at one time in the Philadelphia 
schools, and occasionally consults Homer and Virgil, in order to keep the dust 
off his literary wardrobe. 

Mr. Horn was a democrat until the civil war commenced, and is now 
what would be called an independent republican. He has held but few civil 
offices, and these mostly during his earlier years in Saint Paul. Something like 
twenty years ago he was city attorney for several terms; was subsequently county 
attorney and corporation council; has had much to do with amending and model- 
ing the city charter at different times, and has done good work in the city school 
board. 

Mr. Horn is a member of the " House of Hope," a Presbyterian church, and 
an elder of the same. He is a conscientious, kind-hearted christian man, always 
ready to assist a destitute neighbor, or aid in lifting up sin-stricken humanity. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 253 

His wife was Miss Fanny Banning, a native of Delaware, their union takino- 
place on the ist of September, 1859. They have had seven children, and lost 
three of them. 



REV. JOSEPH W. HANCOCK, 

RED WING. 

THE oldest white settler in Red Wing, still living here, is Joseph Woods 
Hancock, a teacher among the Dakota Indians at this point as early as 
1849, — the year that Minnesota took its separate territorial name. He is a 
descendant of the old Massachusetts family of Hancocks, and was born in Or- 
ford, Grafton county, New Hampshire, on the 4th of April, 1S16, his parents 
being Joseph and Lydia Peck Hancock. The Pecks also were from Massachu- 
setts. His father served a short time in the second war with the mother country, 
being at the battle of Plattsburgh. He was a blacksmith by trade, and also had 
a farm, on which the son was reared. The latter prepared for college at Brad- 
ford, Vermont, purposing to take a liberal course of education, but, his health 
failing, he taught more or less in New Hampshire, Vermont and western New 
York until 1840, when he came as far west as Ouincy, Illinois, where he taught 
a select school, and studied theology in an institution which was closed in a few 
years. 

In the spring of 1849 Mr. Hancock came to Red Wing, then an Indian town, 
as a missionary teacher among the aborigines. At that time there was one white 
man, John Bush, an Indian farmer, and the family of Rev. John Alton, who had 
been sent here the year before and was about leaving. In 1852 Mr. Hancock 
was ordained to the christian ministry by the Dakota Presbytery; organized a 
Presbyterian church here in January, 1855, and was the pastor of it until 1861, 
preaching occasionally at the same time in the country. A little more than 
four years of this period he also served as register of deeds, being the first 
officer of that kind in Goodhue county. He was also the first postmaster at 
Red Wing, being appointed about 1851, and holding the office only a short time. 

In 1864 Mr. Hancock aided in organizing a Presbyterian church at Goodhue 
Center, thirteen miles from Red Wing, and preached there one half the time, 
and the other half at West Florence, where he also organized a church about 
the same time. In April, 1S64, Mr. Hancock was appointed county superintend- 



254 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

ent of schools, and by elections has held that office, off and on, in all at least ten 
years, being now in that position and doin^- a thorough work. He is a man who 
keeps steadily at his labor, whether it be secular or religious, and does every- 
thing in a very satisfactory manner. Probably no more useful man lives in 
Goodhue county. 

Mr. Hancock has a third wife. His first was Miss Maria M. Houghton, of 
Dana, Massachu-setts, chosen in 1846; she died in 1851, leaving two children, 
one of them since dying; the other, Marilla P., is the wife of William Holliday, 
of I'lorence, Goodhue county. The second wife of Mr. Hancock was Miss Sarah 
Rankin, of MiTinesota, married in May, 1S52 ; she died in March, 1859, leaving 
two children, Stella and James Otis, — the latter is a student in the State Uni- 
versity, Minneapolis. His present wife was Miss Juliet Thomson, daughter of 
Rev. James Thomson, who was the first pastor of the Presbyterian church at 
Mankato ; they were married in October, i860. 



HON. AARON GOODRICH, 

SAINT PAUL. 

THE first chief justice of the supreme court of the Territory of Minnesota 
was Aaron Goodrich, appointed by President Taylor in 1849, 'i''"-^ '^ resident 
of Saint Paul since that date. He is a native of the Empire State, was born in 
Sempronius, Cayuga county, on the 6th of July, 1807, and was a son of Levi 
Hamilton and Eunice (Skinner) Goodrich. He comes from the Connecticut 
branch of the Goodrich family, and his Saxon ancestors have been traced back 
to a period in English history prior to the advent of- William of Normandy. 
But Judge Goodrich builds no hopes of personal honor on any family tree, 
however tall : he believes that every man must climb for himself if he would 
rise at all. His mother was a sister of Dr. John .Skinner, once ma)or of New 
Haven, an'd who married a daughter of Roger Sherman. 

In 1815 Levi H. Goodrich moved to western New York, and the son spent 
his minority on a farm, receiving his education partly in district schools, but 
chiefly at home by the aid of his father, who was a scholar and educator, assist- 
ing six sons in that direction. After readinyf law awhile, he moved to Tennes- 
see; finished his law studies and commenced practice in Stewart county. In 



<^ir. 



-^-f^ 






Wtb . 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 257 

1847 and 1848 he was a member of the Tennessee legislature, — the only whig 
that ever represented his district, — and the historian credits him with being 
an active and efficient member of that body. 

In the spring of 1849 ^"'^ ^^'^^ appointed to the supreme bench of Minnesota 
Territory; arrived here in May of that year, and served some three years, show- 
ing, by his ability as a jurist, the fitness of the President's selection. He took a 
prominent part in the new organization. Having been a close student and suc- 
cessful practitioner, he was competent to perform the labors of his new position. 
His personal and official integrity was never questioned. 

In 1858, when Minnesota became a state, Judge Goodrich, with a majority 
of the legislature opposed to him in politics, was appointed a member of a com- 
mission to revise the laws and prepare a system of pleadings and practice for 
the state courts. Two years later, by a legislature of the same political com- 
plexion, he was made chairman of a commission for the preparation of a system 
of pleadings and practice. Judge Goodrich has always opposed what is known 
as the " code " system of practice, and gave his views on this subject fully and 
clearly in the introduction to a minority report, which he made to the legislature 
in 1858. The legal student will find it worthy of consultation. 

In March, 1861, he was appointed, by President Lincoln, secretary of lega- 
tion at Brussels, and served in that capacity a little more than eight years. 
During that period he had an excellent opportunity to gratify his literary, and 
more especially his antiquarian, tastes. He has many valuable tokens of his 
research while in the old world, consisting of rare and singularly illustrated 
books. He visited most of the public libraries in the great cities of Europe, and 
gathered much of the material for a work which produced quite a sensation, — 
"A History of the Character and Achievements of the so-called Christopher 
Columbus," a work of four hundred pages octavo, published by D. Appleton and 
Co. in 1874. He is now preparing a carefully revised edition, which may not, 
however, appear for some time. The real name of Columbus was Griego, whom 
he shows to have been a pirate of forty years' standing, getting possession of 
the log-book of a dead mariner, and setting up for a discoverer. 

In politics, the Judge was originally a whig, and was a presidential elector 

in 1848. On the demise of that party he joined the republican, and was a 

delegate, in i860, to the national convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln, 

Judge Goodrich voting for William H. Seward. We notice, by the files of the 
30 



258 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Saint Paul " Daily Times," of i860, that, in reply to a letter from Judge Good- 
rich, Governor Seward signified his readiness to speak to the citizens of Minne- 
sota on the absorbing political topics of the day; that on the 17th of September, 
"as soon as the uproar had in a measure subsided. Judge Goodrich appeared 
on the balcony of the ' International,' and, in one of the best speeches ever made 
by that gentleman, introduced to the people the man who for nearly half a 
century has espoused and advocated the cause which was dear to every lover 
of humanity and freedom." That address of welcome and introduction has 
become historic, and we hazard nothing in pronouncing it one of the finest 
specimens to be found in- our annals. He was a delegate to the liberal repub- 
lican convention which met in Cincinnati, in 1872, and which nominated Horace 
Greeley, he voting for Judge Davis, now United States senator from Illinois. 
Latterly the Judge has acted with the democratic party. 

He is a PVeemason — is past deputy grand master of the grand lodge of 
the state, and has written no inconsiderable quantity of masonic literature, some 
of which has attracted much attention. He was one of the corporate members 
of the Minnesota Historical Society, of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota, and of 
the Old Settlers' Association of Minnesota, acting for several years as secretary 
of the latter society. Among the pioneers in this state few have made a more 
commentlable record. 

Judge Goodrich, as before intimated, is anti(]uarian in his tastes; fond of 
old and curious books, of which he possesses some rare specimens ; is pos- 
sessed of fine conversational powers ; original and forcible in the expression 
of his thoughts and opinions, yet possessed of a kindh' nature ; is unselfish and 
strong in his attachments ; devoted to the men and measures of his choice, 
and was personally known to, and possessed the confidence of, three of our 
Presidents, — Taylor, Lincoln ami Johnson. The good opinion which he most 
prized was that of the late William H. Seward, who said and wrote many flatter- 
ing things of him, among them the following: "The tour which I made in the 
year i860, in the western states, was undertaken at the instance of several 
political friends, among whom none was more earnest or influential than Judge 
Goodrich, — his good nature induced him to attach himself to me as a com- 
panion. Much of the enjoyment I found on the journey was ilue to his geniality, 
and if there was any inspiration in the speeches I made, I should attribute it to 
his profound, yet sparkling and humorous, conversation." 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 259 

He was one of the founders of the republican party in Minnesota. In Sep- 
tember, 185.7, as chairman of the committee on resolutions, he drew and pre- 
sented to the first republican convention ever held in the state a "platform" 
remarkable for its terseness and adaptability to that period in our political his- 
tory, the "squatter-sovereignty" and "border-ruffian" times. It was adopted 
amid acclamation by a unanimous vote. Of this production Mr. Seward, one of 
the founders of the republican party, wrote : " I have rather a prejudice against 
than favor for political platforms, yet yours is sufficient to redeem the multitude 
of platforms from censure or reproach.- May I not, then, hope that the free- 
men of Minnesota will boldly mount upon and never leave it." In the campaign 
which followed, Judge Goodrich, though not a candidate for office, took an active 
part, and he, with Governor Ramsey, Hon. I. Donnelly and others, "stumped the 
state." There were incidents in this campaign which will long be remembered. 
Stump-speaking was, perhaps, the oratory in which he most excelled. 

In 1870 he was united in marriage with Miss Alice Paris, of Bogota, New 
Grenada; they have one child, a daughter, five years old. Mrs. Goodrich 
is a descendant of the old Castilian family de Paris, ennobled in the time of 
Charles I, of Spain ; the elder branch of which moved to Columbia about a 
century ago; her father, Don Enrique, being during his life-time the head of the 
family. Her grandfather, Don Pepe Paris, was the friend of the liberator .Simon 
Bolivar, to whose memory he reared a bronze monument in the principal square 
of Bogota. This statue, cast in Italy, is regarded by connoisseurs as a work 
of art. Don Pepe Paris was owner of the celebrated emerald mines of Muso. 
Mrs. Goodrich was educated in Brussels. She speaks half-a-dozen of the lead- 
ing languages of modern Europe, and is one of the most accomplished ladies 
in Minnesota. 



HON. LUCIUS W. DENISON, M.D., 

FARIBAULT. 

LUCIUS W. DENISON, twenty-four years a practicing physician in Fari- 
■^ bault, and at the present time a member of the legislature from Rice 
county, was born in the town of Brookfield, Madison county, New York, on the 
17th of December, 1819. His parents, Joseph and Desire (Wilcox) Denison, 
were natives of Stonington, Connecticut. A maternal aunt of his, Mrs. Patty 



2 6o THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAFIIICAL DICTIONARY. 

Wilcox Stanton, is still living, being in her one hundredth year. Lucius was 
the youngest child in a family of twelve children. His eldest brother, Joseph 
Denison, junior, was in the second war with England, and his grandfather, 
George Denison, was in the first. 

Young Denison completed his literary education at the W'hitestown, Oneida 
county. Seminary, where he attended two years; immediately afterward taught 
one year in Rhode Island ; then read medicine awhile witli Drs. Thomas and 
Gardner, of W'hitestown ; finished reading with Dr. Bailey, of Clarksville, a vil- 
lage in his native town, in which he was born ; attended a course of lectures in 
the medical department of the University of New York, in the winter of 1846- 
47 ; a second course at Castleton, Vermont, where he received his diploma in 
the autumn of 1S47, and few months afterward a third course in the Buffalo 
Medical College. 

In the autumn of 1849 Dr. Denison located at Jefferson, Wisconsin ; two 
years later went to California ; employed several men in mining, while he did a 
little practice, such as he could not avoid doing; remained there until the spring 
of 1855, and then returned to New York. 

In October of that year he visited Faribault; was favorably impre.ssed with 
its site and prospects, and here made a permanent settlement. He has not been 
disappointed in the growth and history of the place, and has always had a fair 
share of business in his profession, in which he has a good standing. In a land 
of threshing-machines, he has had his share of limbs to amputate. He has been 
pension surgeon since the rebellion closed. 

Dr. Denison has been chairman of the school board of the cit\- of l*"aribault 
for the last twelve years, during whicli time its large and substantial houses tor 
eraded schools have been built; he is now chairman of the board oi countv com- 
missioners, there being five districts in the county, and has been a member of 
the legislature the last two years. During the session of 1S78 he was chairman 
of the committee on the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Pilind, and 
was on the conuiiittee on education, and one or two other committees. At the 
time of writing this sketch the session of 1S79 has not convened. The Doctor 
is a practical business man, and makes a valuable legislator. 

He voted for General Harrison for President in 1840, was a liberty party 
man in 1844, a free-soiler in 1848, and has been a republican since 1855. His 
relations to the party are seen in the place he occupies. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 261 

In September, 1855, just before starting to make his home in Minnesota, Dr. 
Denison was joined in wedlock with Miss JuHa Franklin, a native of Madison 
county. New York, and they have had four children, losing one of them. Ger- 
trude, educated in the excellent public schools and Saint Mary's Hall, Faribault, 
is a teacher in one of these graded schools ; La Motte L., educated in the Shat- 
tuck School, Faribault, is a merchant in this city ; and Merton is attending the 
local schools, being only fifteen years old. 



HON. ROSCOE F. HERSEY, 

STILLWATER. 

ROSCOE FREEMAN HERSEY, state senator from Washington county, 
is a son of Samuel F. and Jane A. (Davis) Hersey, and was born at Mil- 
ford, Penobscot county, Maine, on the i8th of July, 1841. He is descended from 
an old revolutionary family, many members of which are living in Oxford county, 
Maine. The great-grandfather of our subject was a colonel in the army that 
fought for the independence of the colonies. 

James Hersey, grandfather of Roscoe, and a resident of Sumner, Oxford 
county, was a colonel of the Maine State Militia. His son, Samuel Freeman 
Hersey, also a native of Sumner, and born in 181 2, after receiving an academic 
education at Hebron, moved to Milford, and subsequently to Bangor, Penobscot 
county. He was a merchant, a banker and a lumberman, early and wisely invest- 
ing in timber lands in his native state, and later in Michigan, Wisconsin and 
Minnesota, — more than two hundred thousand acres in all. He was a man of 
remarkable foresight, tact, energy and prudence, his investments everywhere and 
in all ways yielding rich returns. For many years he was president of one of the 
state banks of Maine; was in the legislature in 1842, 1857, 1865, 1867 and 1869, 
and when he died, on the 3d of February, 1875, he was serving his second term 
in congress, from the fourth, or Bangor, district. He died at home, in the bosom 
of his family, and members of congress, in both houses, paid fitting tributes to his 
masterly business capacities, his high social and christian standing, and his worth 
as a legislator and statesman. Among those who pronounced eulogies on him in 
the house was Hon. Mark M. Dunnell, who is still a member of congress from 
Minnesota. In the course of his remarks he said : 



262 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Maine has not alone witnessed his achievements. In 1854 he commenced the purchase of timber 
lands in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and with others erected a mill for the manufacture of lumber at 
Stillwater. Since that time he has had large interests at that point and elsewhere in the state. His 
money has aided in the construction of at least two railroads in our state. He owned at the time 
of his death not less than seventy-five thousand acres of timber lands in Minnesota and Wisconsin, 
and no inconsiderable amount in Michigan and Maine. 

Though a non-resident of Minnesota, Mr. Hersey did nuicli to advance the 
interests of the state, and especially of .Stillwater, and we make no apology for 
the amount of space here given to a record of his lite. He was thrice married, 
and of four sons hy his second wife, Roscoe was one. When he was six years 
old the family moved to Bangor, where he was educated in the graded schools ; 
then clerked in his father's store till of age. 

In luly, 1862, he raised a company for the i8th Maine Infantry, and was 
appointed state mustering officer. He was elected second lieutenant of company 
A; in August, 1862, was promoted to ist lieutenant, and in November, 1863, to 
captain. On the 19th of May, 1864, he was severely wounded in the left ankle 
at Spottsylvania Court House, and after being laid up and confined to crutches 
for nine months, was discharged. He was breveted colonel before leaving the 
service. 

Colonel Hersey spent two years in New Orleans, Louisiana, being engaged 
in the shipping and commission business. In the spring of 1867 he came to Still- 
water, and proceeded hence to Lake City, Minnesota, where he had charge of 
the mercantile house and lumber interests of Hersey, Staples and Bean tor five 
years, returning to Stillwater in 1872. 

He is of the firms of Hersey and Bean and Hersey, Bean and Brown, the 
former eneacred in timber and farmini'' lands ; the latter in loys, lumber and mer- 
chandise. His associates are Charles and Jacob Bean, long the associates of his 
father here in business, and Edward S. Brown. The firm of Herse)' and Brown 
is the largest owners of timber lands in the state, having more than one hundred 
thousand acres. Mr. Hersey devotes his time largely to looking after his father's 
estate, the property being scattered and requiring much attention. 

Colonel Hersey is vice-president of the Lumberman's National Bank, Still- 
water ; secretary of the Stillwater (tlouring) Mills, and director of the Saint Paul, 
Stillwater and Taylor's Falls railway, the Saint Paul and Sioux City railway, the 
H udson and River Falls railway, and of other corporations of minor consequence. 
Still in middle life, his history, though brief, especially in connection with this 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 26 



o 



commonwealth, is remarkably successful and decidedly praiseworthy. He puts 
his shoulder to every wheel of commendable enterprise, and very few lift harder 
than he. In him are combined the elements which make a truly valuable citizen — 
enterprise, public spirit and liberality. 

Mr. Hersey was elected state senator in the autumn of 1S77, — an office which 
was forced upon him, — and in the session of 1878 was placed on several impor- 
tant committees. 

He has a wife and three children, his wife being Miss Eva C. Wardwell, of 
Bangor, Maine, their marriage dating January 4, 1864. 



HON. WILLIAM W. BRADEN, 

PRESrON. 

WILLIAM WALLACE BRADEN, a native of Iberia, Ohio, is a son of 
Walter Braden, merchant, and later in life a farmer, and Margaret Bodley, 
and was born on the 3d of December, 1837. The Bradens were originally from 
Ireland, and settled in the Keystone State ; the Bodleys were early settlers in 
Ohio, and are numerous and prominent in some parts of that state. The grand- 
father of Margaret Bodley was in the continental army. William received a very 
ordinary education in the district school, and was reared at farming, which has 
always been his business. In November, 1854, he came to Fillmore county, Min- 
nesota, with his father, who is still living here, his age being seventy-eight. The 
mother also is living, being several years younger. 

Fillmore county was very sparsely settled twenty-four years ago, the Bradens 
being among the pioneers, settling at Lenora, in the southern part of the county, 
where our subject has a large farm, well improved. He has other lands in the 
county, and is indeed a well-to-do farmer; has always been a hard worker, and 
owes his accumulations solely to his industry and careful management. He has 
never found time to suck his thumbs, that being a doubtful method of support. 
Industry to him, like virtue, has been its own reward. 

Mr. Braden was a member of the legislature in 1866 and 1867, and is serving 
on his third term as county treasurer. He is one of the most popular men of the 
younger class in the county, being eminently trustworthy, and true alike to his 
friends and the interests of the county. 



264 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In lune, 1862, Mr. Braden enlisted in the 6th Minnesota \'ohinteers ; became 
1st lieutenant company K, and was promoted to captain in 1863. Before the 
retjiment had received marching orders southward the Indian outbreak occurred, 
and in the autumn of 1862 it accompanied General Sibley to the western plains, 
and afterward went to the south, beinjf in the service till September, 1865. Dur- 
ino- these three years, though in several fights. Captain Braden never received a 
wound. He was provost-marshal a long time in southwestern Missouri, with 
headquarters at Springfield. 

In politics, he is a republican, straight, unwavering, and often attends congres- 
sional, state antl other conventions as a delegate, being quite prominent in the 
party, and a conscientious as well as earnest worker for its interests. In the 
Masonic fraternity he is a Knight Templar, and is high priest of Preston Chapter, 
No. 32. 

Captain Braden has a wife and three children, his marriage taking place on 
the 7th of March, 1866. His wife was Miss Addie Griswold, a native of Penn- 
sylvania, and living, when married, at Spring Valley, Fillmore county. They lost 
their second child. 



HON. JOHN H. CASE, 

FARlBAirLT. 

JOHN HIGLEY CASE, son of Jairus Case, a physician, is of very early 
Connecticut stock, his ancestor in this country, John Case, being a pioneer 
at Windsor, in that state, and only a few years behind the Plymouth Colony. 
The Higleys also were early settlers in Connecticut. The subject of this brief 
sketch spent his youth in securing a liberal education, working at times on a 
small faim which his father owned and cultivated, partly that his sons might 
learn to work and develop their muscle. He prepared for college at Willislon 
Seminary, East Hampton, Massachusetts, and Sufheld Literary Institute, Con- 
necticut; graduated from Yale College in the class of 1855, studied in the law 
department of the same institution, and was admitted to the bar at New Haven 
in the spring of 1858. 

Mr. Case opened a law office at Faribault in November, 1858, and has been 
in steady practice here for twenty years. He is a man of studious habits, well 
read, thoroughly posted in the statutes, and excels as a court lawyer. He at- 





/U/l^t^o<Z^ 



J SAvisiaffisr stJ'y 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 265 

tends very closely to his business, prepares his cases with a great deal of care, 
and has a very remunerative practice. He makes a specialty of collections, in 
which line he has an extensive business. 

Mr. Case was prosecuting attorney of Rice county for four years, and was in 
the state senate in the session of 1871, serving as chairman of the committees on 
charitable institutions, taxes and tax laws, and one or two others. His practical 
turn of mind, eood business habits, and sterling common sense, make him a use- 
ful legislator. Mr. Case has held one or two offices in the municipality of Fari- 
bault when pressed to accept them, but does not seem to covet honors in that 
direction. He is thoroughly wedded to his profession, in which he has an honor- 
able standing, and in which direction his ambition evidently lies. 

His politics are republican, but he would not be called an active, much less 
a bitter, partisan. 

The wife of Mr. Case was Miss Anna Burke, of Faribault. They were mar- 
ried on the 1st of December, 1875, and have no children. 



CHARLES McILRATH, 

SAINT PAUL. 

THE name of Mcllrath, spelled a dozen different ways in the eight hundred 
years, is of Norman origin, the ancestors following the fortunes of William 
the Conqueror in the eleventh century. At that time the name was spelled 
LeRuath, and sometimes LeRoth. A few of the Conqueror's barons went north 
into Scotland ; among them was Robert DeBruys, grandfather of the famous 
Robert Bruce. For services rendered by Sir Hugh Mac Lerath, Bruce granted 
him and his family some lands in Ayrshire. On those lands many members of 
the family remained, till persecution drove out the Covenanters. Many of them 
sealed their devotion to their religious belief with their blood. By the time of 
the Bruce period in Scottish history, the family had assumed the prefix of Mac, 
meaning-, in Celt, "son of" Thus we have Mac LeRath as the oldest form in 
which the name is found in Scotland, where the present bearers of the name 
spell it Mcllwraith. When driven out of Ayrshire, Scotland, by persecution, the 
progenitor of the branch of the family which we are now tracing settled in the 

county of Antrim, Ireland, a member of it coming to this country about 1742 and 
31 



266 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

settling near Morristown, New Jersey. From this man sprang a large number, at 
least of the Mcllraths and McElraths in the United States, including our subject. 

Charles Mcllrath, once auditor of the State of Minnesota for twelve con- 
secutive years, is a Puickeye by birth, and was born in Euclid (now Collamer), 
Cuyahoga county, on the iith of March, 1829, where his father, Michael S. Mc- 
llrath, settled about 1817. The latter was in early life a farmer, and later a 
merchant. The mother of Charles was Sophia Watkins, she dying when he was 
only four years old. His father is still living, being in his seventy-third year. 
Youno- Mcllrath farmed some in boyhood ; finished his education at the Shaw 
Academy, Collamer (now East Cleveland); clerked in his father's store at Euclid 
till of aee ; became a conductor on the Delaware division of the New York and 
Erie railroad; continued in that business trom 1851 to the spring of 1855, when 
he came to Minnesota; in August of that year located at Brownsville, Houston 
county, where the United -States land oHice then was, and became a real-estate 
dealer and exchange broker; in the spring of the next year followed the land 
office to Chatfield, Fillmore county, and was engaged in the same business there 
about three years, having, meanwhile, "a similar office at Faribault. In May, 
1857, he changed his residence to Faribault; in the winter of 1858-59 changed 
it to Saint Peter, Nicollet county, continuing the same business there, and with- 
drawing from Chatfield and Faribault 

In the autumn of i860 Mr. Mcllrath was electeci auditor of state, and by re- 
peated reelections held the office from January, i86i,to lanuary, 1873. When 
he assumed its duties, treasury warrants were selling at thirt\- per cent discpunt ; 
he soon brought them up to par, and when he left the office there was a respect- 
able balance in the treasury, and the finances of the state were in a good work- 
ing condition. No man who ever held that office in Minnesota did a better work 
for the state. 

During the first five years that Mr. Mcllrath was auditor, he was also comp- 
troller of currency under the banking law of the state, and during the last eight 
years of liis .luditorship he was commissioner of the state land office. Under 
his administration the school fund, and .State University and .Agricultural College 
funds were foumled, and the educational work of the state received a grand 
impetus. 

In the autumn of 1872. just before leaving the auditor's office, Mr. Mcllrath 
was appointed, by the United -States circuit court for the district of Minnesota, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 267 

receiver for the Southern Minnesota railroad, holding that position about four 
years. In the autumn of 1877 he engaged in business as a grain and commission 
merchant, in compan\- with Luman A. Gilbert, the firm being Mcllrath and 
Gilbert, now one of the leading houses of the kind in Saint Paul. 

In politics, Mr. Mcllrath was originally an abolitionist, and became success- 
ively a liberty man, a free-soiler and a republican. He has always held his 
politics with the utmost sincerity and sacredness, and not from selfishness. What- 
ever positions of honor and trust he has held came unsolicited, and he has dis- 
charged his duties with the strictest regard for the public weal. 

Mr. Mcllrath was made a Mason at Port Jervis, New York, about 1853; a 
chapter Mason at Binghamton, same state, in the winter of 1854-55, and was 
master of the lodge at Chatfield in 1856. 

His marriage is dated September 23, 1866, his wife being Lucretia Spalding, ' 
a daughter of Judge R. P. Spalding, of Cleveland, Ohio. She is a member of 
Christ's Episcopal Church, and quite active in religious and' charitable works. 



HON. DANIEL S. NORTON, 

WINONA. 

THE bar of Winona has furnished quite a list ot names conspicuous in the 
history of Minnesota. Among those yet living are Hon. William Windon, 
United States senator; General C. H. Berry, first attorney-general of the state ; 
Thomas Wilson, late chief justice of Minnesota ; Judge Mitchell, of the district 
bench; Hon. W. H. Yale, late lieutenant-governor; and Hon. Thomas Simpson, 
late state senator; and among the dead are Judge Waterman, once of the district 
bench, and Hon. Daniel S. Norton, late United States senator. Sketches of all 
these men, living and dead, may be found in this work, and the history of all of 
them has been made almost entirely since settling in the young commonwealth 
of Minnesota. 

Mr. Norton was a son of Daniel S. Norton, senior, and was born in Mount 
Vernon, Ohio, in April, 1829. He was educated at Kenyon College, Gambier, 
Ohio; enlisted in the 3d regiment of Ohio Volunteers in 1846; had his health 
impaired while in the Mexican war, and spent two years in California, Mexico 
and Central America ; returned to Ohio and read law with his brother-in-law. 



268 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Judge R. C. 1 1 unl ; practiced in Mount X'ernon, Ohio, in compan\' with Hon. 
William W'indom, ant! in 1855 both came to Minnesota. The following year we 
find them both in practice at Winona, a village, in 1856, of perhaps fifteen hun- 
dred inlial)itants. Here Mr. Norton was in practice until elected United States 
senator, in Januar)', 1865. Before this date he had served in both branches of 
the Minnesota legislature, there making an honorable record, and e.xhibiting 
those traits of character and that degree of talent and ability which prompted 
his republican friends to send him to the United States senate. There he worked 
faithfully for the material interests of his adopted state. 

Senator Norton was originally a whig ; joined the republican party at an early 
day in its history; followed the lead of President Johnson in the reconstruction 
measures, and ultimately severed his connection with the "great party of free- 
dom," much to the disappointment of many who had aide-d in lifting him to a 
seat in the council halls of the nation. 

In Jul)-, 1870, while a member of the senate, Mr. Norton died, much to the 
regret and grief of all parties, for as a citizen he was held in very high respect. 
He was true to everv interest of the state, and "loried in the yrowth of Winona 
with the fostering solicitude of a father. 

Mr. Norton was twice married : first to Miss Lizzie Sherman, of Mount Vernon, 
Ohio, in 1856, she dying in 1862 ; the next time, to Miss Laura Cantlan, of Balti- 
more, Maryland, in 1868. He left a daughter by each woman. These dates we 
gather from an obituary notice of Mr. Norton, in the Winona daily " Republican " 
the dav after his demise. 



COLONEL WILLIAM COLVILL, 

RED ii'/.va. 

WILLIAM COLVILL, son and grandson of William Colvill, is paternally 
of .Scotch descent, his grandfather emigrating from Kirkald\- in 1820 and 
settling in I'^orestville, town of Hanover, Chautaucpia county, New York, where 
the subject of this sketch was born, on the 5th of April, 1830. It is a very old 
family, its ancient homestead at Ocheltree being mentioned by Sir Walter Scott 
in one of his novels, " The Antiquary." This branch of the family spells the 
name as in this sketch, without the final e. The maiden name of William's 
mother was Mary C. Love. Her great-grandfather was from Ireland ; her grand- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 269 

father, Robert Love, was a soldier in the first war with the mother country, and 
her father, George Love, was a quartermaster in the second. The wife of Robert 
Love was Mary Cutting, whose father was a surgeon in the revolutionary army. 
The wife of George Love was a Campbell, whose father and uncles were in the 
same army, and her mother, whose maiden name was Nicholson, had six brothers 
enoaoed in the same elorious strife for independence. The connections, near 
and remote, of our subject seem to have been a patriotic race. 

Young Colvill was educated at the Fredonia Academy, eight miles from For- 
estville ; taught school one winter; read law in the office of Millard Fillmore and 
Solomon G. Haven, of Buffalo, and was there admitted to the bar in April, 1851. 

Mr. Colvill practiced at Forestville for three years, and in April, 1854, settled 
in Red Wing, doing something in real estate the first year, there being no oppor- 
tunity for professional work. His first winter in Minnesota he spent at Saint 
Paul as enrolling clerk of the territorial council ; opened a law office the next 
spring (1855 ) ; was appointed clerk of the court, and the winter following was 
secretary of the territorial council. Meantime, in the spring of 1855, he estab- 
lished the Red Wing " .Sentinel," a democratic paper, and conducted it until the 
civil war broke out, having, at the same time, a good run of legal business in 
connection with the land office, newly established at Red Wing. 

In the month of April, 1861, when the President called for volunteers, Mr. 
Colvill raised a company in three or four days, and on the 29th of that month he 
was mustered into the service as captain of company F, ist Minnesota Infantry, 
serving with that regiment for three years, though not always able to be on the 
field. He was promoted step by step till May, 1863, when he became colonel, 
havino- command of the regiment from the first battle of Fredericksburg to Get- 
tysburg. He was wounded in the calf of the right leg at the first battle of Bull 
Run, in the left breast at Nelson's F"arm, and in the right shoulder and right foot 
and ankle at Gettysburg, the last wounds badly maiming him for life. 

At the end of three years Colonel Colvill returned to Minnesota; edited the 
Red Wing " Republican" until January, 1865, and then took a seat in the legis- 
lature, to which he had been elected the autumn before. 

Immediately after the adjournment of the legislature he was appointed col- 
onel of the 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery, which was stationed at Chattanooga 
until mustered out in July, 1865. About the same time he received a brevet 
commission as brioadier-CTeneral. 



2 70 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Ill tlic autumn of 1865 Colonel Colvill was elected attorney-treneral of the 
state on the. Union ticket, and served two years; followed the lead of President 
Johnson, and in 1S66 ran for conj^ress in opposition to the republican nominee, 
and in tiie autumn of 1877 was elected to the lower branch of the legislature on 
the democratic ticket, in the strongest republican county in the state. Colonel 
Colvill is still in legal practice, and has a good run of business. 

His wife was Miss Elizabeth Morgan, of Oneida county. New \'ork ; married 
in April, 1867. 



HON. R E. DuTOlT, 

CHASKA. 

FREDERIC EUGENE DuTOIT, sheriff of Carver county, and twice a 
member of the Minnesota house of representatives, furnishes another illus- 
tration of the printing-office as an educator. He went into such an office when 
not more than a dozen years old, and there obtained almost entirely the fund of 
knowledge which he now possesses, and he is one of the leading journalists in 
the valley of the Minnesota river. 

Mr. DuToit is a son of Frederic C. and Eliza (Gressett) DuToit, and was 
born in Lewis county, New York, on the 24th of September, 1845. His father 
was a native of Switzerland, a merchant in middle life, and for years register of 
deeds and clerk of court for Carver county. 

His mother was from France. When he was ten years old his parents set- 
tled in Chaska. About two years afterward he became connected with the Carver 
county '■ Transcript," published at Carver, two miles south of Chaska ; remained 
there one year, and then finished learning his trade in the Scott county " En- 
quirer," published at Belle Plaine by John L. MacDonald, now judge of the .eighth 
judicial district. 

When young DuToit closed his apprenticeship civil war was raging at the 
south, and in -September, 1861, when just si.xteen years old, he enlisted as a 
private in company A, 4th Minnesota Infantry; served four )ears ; was in many 
battles, but never received a wound, and Avas mustered out as second lieutenant 
ist Minnesota Heavy Artillery, receiving his commission unexpectedly while in 
the field bravely fighting for the Union. 

In June, 1866, Lieutenant DuToit purchased the Chaska \^Ule)' " Herald," 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 271 

and is still conducting it. In addition to his editorial labors he has had the 
duties of some political office to perform most of the time since returning from 
the south. He was county commissioner three years; county superintendent of 
schools two years; a member of the legislature in 1872 and 1S73, and was elected 
sheriff in 1874 and reelected in 1876. He is not only a competent, but faithful, 
officer, and one of the most popular men of the younger class in the county. 

Mr. DuToit is a firm democrat, and his paper is an able exponent of his 
political tenets ; but little space, however, is given to the discussion of political 
issues; he makes the " Herald" more of a family newspaper, looking well to the 
interests of local matters. 



HON. HENRY S. GRISWOLD, 

CIIA r FIELD. 

HENRY STRONG GRISWOLD, son of Jeremiah and Eunice (Strong) 
Griswold, comes from New England stock; his grandfather, Asaham Gris- 
wold, leaving Connecticut and settling in Jefferson county, New York, in 1802. 
There, in the town of Adams, Henry was born, on the 24th of January, 1833. 
His father, a harness-maker by trade, was in the battle of Sacket's Harbor, in 
the second armed contest with England. 

Mr. Griswold received an academic education at Adams, and at thirteen was 
prepared to enter the second year in Hamilton College, but was too young and 
could not be received; so he discontinued his studies, and became a clerk, at 
Adams, in a store kept by Henry B. Whipple, now bishop of Minnesota. Sub- 
sequently our subject worked a year or two with his father; was four years a 
clerk in Hungerford's bank at Adams, one year in Fort Stanwix bank, Rome, 
New York, and in the spring of 1857 came to Chatfield and became book-keeper 
for J. C. Easton, banker. Two years later Mr. Griswold was elected county 
treasurer, filling that office one term. In the latter part of 1861 he became a 
paymaster's clerk in the regular army, stationed in the Red River Valley of the 
North, resigning at the end of ten months. He is a superior accountant. 

Since 1867 Mr. Griswold has been engaged, with James K. Bradbury, in the 
manufacture of woolen goods in the village of Chatfield, the firm name being 
Griswold and Bradbury. He was a member of the Minnesota house of repre- 
sentatives in 1871, and while in the legislature secured the reincorporation of the 



2 72 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

village of Chatfield. Prior to that date he was president of the village two terms. 
He is a practical and efficient business-man. 

Mr. Griswold cast his first vote for John C. Fremont, republican candidate 
for President in 1856, and has seen no reason for changing his politics. His 
name often appears in the list of delegates to district and state conventions, in 
which he has large influence. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and was the first 
scribe when the chapter at Chatfield — North .Star, No. 11 — was organized. 

Mr. Griswold was married at Cincinnati, Ohio, on the ist of May, 1861, to 
Miss Mary L. Redway, a native of Adams, New York, and they have one child, 
Marian Esther, aged seventeen years. 



HON. MARK H. BUNNELL, 

OWATONNA. 

MARK HILL DUNNELL, just elected for the fifth time to congress, from 
the first Minnesota district, is a son of Samuel Dunnell, a farmer, and 
Achsah Hill, and was born in Buxton, Maine, on the 2d of July, 1.S23. His great- 
great-grandfather came from Scotland, the Hills from England. He spent his 
minority on his father's farm, attending the district school and different acad- 
emies during such seasons of the year as were least pressed with work, finishing 
his studies preparatory for college under private tuition, and securing, with his 
own hands, the means for his entire education after leaving the district school. 
He was graduated from Waterville College, now Colby Universit\-, in 1S49, ^"^^ 
for two years was principal of Norway Liberal Institute, and thtm tor three years 
of Hebron Academy, both in his native state. The latter was a school of a 
high grade, in which especial attention was given to the classics and the prepara- 
tion of )'()iing men for college. During the three years that Mr. Dunnell was at 
its head he thus fitted forty or fifty students, and sent them to different colleges 
and universities in New Eng-land. Amongf these were Hon. Eugene Hale, now 
member of congress, from Maine ; Hon. John D. Long, speaker of the Massachu- 
setts house in 1878, and lately elected lieutenant-governor of that state; Rev. 
G. M. P. King, president of Wayland Seminary, in W'ashington, District of 
Columbia, and a dozen other men of good standing in the professions. 

He was a member of the lower house of the legislature in 1854, and of the 




y 




/^^/rit rJ^ /ju^L4c ^/ 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 275 

upper house the following year; and from 1855 to i860 was state superintendent 
of common schools, being appointed by Governor Anson P. Morrill, and re- 
appointed by Governor Hannibal Hamlin. 

While Mr. Dunnell was teaching in the academies already mentioned, he 
devoted his leisure time to the study of law; was admitted to the bar in 1856, 
practiced some that year, and in i860 opened a law office at Portland. In March 
of the following year, one month before the civil war commenced, he was ap- 
pointed United States consul to Vera Cruz, Mexico; and before entering upon 
his duties he asked for four months' delay, in order that he might aid in raising 
the 5th regiment, Maine Volunteers, of which he was appointed colonel. He 
reached Washington, with his regiment, in season to participate in the first battle 
of Bull Run. The October following, at the request of Secretary Seward, he 
entered upon his duties at Vera Cruz, which had become an outlying rebel city, 
through which munitions of war were passing for confederate use. On one 
occasion he was instrumental in detaining fifteen thousand stand ot arms bound 
for Texas. For services of this kind, rendered while there, he received a letter 
of thanks from Hon. Wm. H. Seward, secretary of state. During part of the 
time that he was at Vera Cruz, the Mexicans were resisting the Spanish, French 
and English alliance against Mexico, and when the governor of the state of Vera 
Cruz retired from the city to join the Mexican forces, he placed the keys of the 
government of the city in the hands of consul Dunnell, he being the senior officer 
among the friendly powers. 

In 1862 Colonel Dunnell resigned the office of United States consul; re- 
turned to Maine, and aided the governor in recruiting men and in the organiza- 
tion of the state militia, practicing his profession at the same time. 

In 1864 he was tendered the secretaryship of the newly formeil Territory 
of Montana, but declined to accept it. In January, 1865, we find him located 
at Winona, and since that date he has been a citizen of Minnesota. He was a 
member of the house of representatives of this state in 1S67, and at the close ot 
the session was appointed, on the 2d of April, 1867, state superintendent oi 
public instruction, — an office which he held for three and one-third years, and the 
duties of which he performed with great faithfulness and ability, giving a fresh 
impetus to the cause of education in the " North Star State." 

He resigned the office of superintendent to take his place in congress, to 
which he had been elected in the autumn of 1870. He was reelected in 1872, 
32 



276 THE UNl'JIiD STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

1S74, 1S76 and 187.S. and is now serving his fifth term in tlie house of represen- 
tatives, — an honor ijut once before conferred by the people of Minnesota. His 
renomination a fourth time — an act done by acclamation — was a subject of warm 
congratulation and much rejoicing on the part of his republican friends all over the 
country. The press was made especially happy by the graceful act. The Wash- 
ington " National Republican," published where the untiring labors of congress- 
man L)unn(^ll arc witnessed, thus spoke in August, 187S, of his renomination: 

We have already announced the renomination of Hon. Mark H. Dunnell for congress in the first 
district of Minnesota. In this liis constituents have honored themsehes, and at the same time iiave 
given proper recognition to valuable pidilic service characterized by marked ability. This nomination is 
made more significant by the fact that it was unanimously bestowed. Mr. Dunnell, during the period 
of years that he has held a seat in the house of representatives, has distinguished his legislative career 
by abilities of a high order, both as a worker and debater. By a life of purity at the national capitol, 
and an unflagging devotion to the interests of his constituents and the country at large, he has won 
for himself a high degree of confidence and respect. His election is assured, and his return to con- 
gress will be hailed with satisfaction by all who know him. He is a stalwart republican. 

During the eight years that our sul)ject has already been in congress he has 
served upon the following committees of the house, — public lands, education 
and labor, claims, commerce, Mississippi levees, expenditures in the state depart- 
ment and upon the special committee to investigate the Presidential election of 
1876, in the .State of Florida. No representative from Minnesota has served 
his constituents with more hdelity, and that his services are fully appreciated 
is seen in the heartiness and unanimity with which his renominations are made. 
He usually has from five thousand to ten thousand majority. 

In the forty-third congress an attack was made upon the Republic of Mexico, 
and congressman Dunnell made a speech in which he gallantly defended that 
republic from what he regarded as an unwarranted assault. His speech was 
printed in all the Mexican journals, and he was made an honorary member of 
the Society of Geography and Statistics, — the highest society of the kind in that 
republic, and hence the highest honor it was capable of bestowing. In 1868 Mr. 
Dunnell received the honorary degree of LL. D. from .Shurtleff College, one of 
the oldest institutions of learning in Illinois. 

He has been a member ol the republican party from its inception, and in 
1856 was a delegate to the national convention which nominated General John 
C. Fremont. His labors in behalf of the party are earnest and imceasing. His 
constituents in the tirst tlistrict are proud of their representative; at the national 
capital. He is an effective and popular speaker on the "stumj)" as well as in 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



~ I / 



congress, and has repeatedly spoken in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and Minnesota. During the exciting canvass 
in the autumn of 1S78, it was the writer's privilege to meet Mr. Dunnell at Blue 
Earth City, Faribault county, Minnesota, where he addressed the people on the 
issues of the day. He confined himself to the question of finance, then the 
all-absorbing topic. He spoke for more than two hours to a packed house, and 
he treated the subject in so clear and interesting as well as able a manner, that 
he held the closest attention of his audience to the very close. It was a masterly 
effort, a powerful appeal for " honest money," and his constituents showed their 
confidence in the man by returning him to congress by the customary majority. 

For ten years, while a citizen of Maine, he was a trustee ot Waterville Col- 
leore. The cause of education has no warmer friend in the threat northwest. 

The wife of Mr. Dunnell was Miss Sarah A. Parington, daughter of John 
and Ann Parington, of Gorham, Maine ; their marriage taking place on the 20th 
of November, 1850. They have lost two children, and have three living. The 
eldest daughter, Nellie A., was the wife of Professor C. W. Hall, of the University 
of Minnesota, she dying at Leipzig, Germany, seven months after her marriage; 
Alice Maud, the youngest child, died when she was between four and five years 
old; Warren B. is an architect and superintendent of public buildings in Kan- 
sas City, Missouri; Fanny F. and Mark Vi. are students in Minnesota Academy, 
Owatonna. 



HON. LEVI NUTTING, 

FA/{l/!AULT. 

GENERAL NUTTING, as his neighbors uniformly call him, once surveyor- 
general for the district of Minnesota, dates his birth at Amherst, Massa- 
chusetts, January 7, 1819. His grandfather was of Scotch-Irish pedigree, and his 
maternal grandmother was pure Scotch. His father, John Nutting, a millwright 
by trade, joined the revolutionary army from Northampton, Massachusetts, near 
the close of the war, going in at the age of seventeen, and serving till peace was 
declared. The mother of Levi was Catharine Smith, whose father was of English 
descent. 

After receiving a very limited education in a district school, at fifteen the 
subject of this notice commenced learning the shoemaker's trade ; worked at the 



278 THE UNITED STATES BJOGKAFIIICAL DICTIONARY. 

business as an apprentice, journeyman and manufacturer, eigiit or nine years; 
attendetl and taught school three years; was then employed in superintending 
various branches of mechanical business until near the close of ICS52. At that 
time Mr. Nutting started for Minnesota; reached Saint Paul on the 7th of Jan- 
uary. 1H53, the day he was thirty-four years old, and s])cnt two years there and 
at Saint Anthony, now East Minneapolis, working at the joiner's trade. 

During the first year that General Nutting was in Minnesota — in the month 
of Ma}-, 1853- he visited the site of Faribault; was greatly pleased with it; 
math; a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, and lull)- made u]) his mind that 
this would some tlay be his home. In April, 1855. he moved hither; commenced 
improx ing his lands, and tor a few years farming was his leading business, he 
dealing. Iiowever, more or less in real estate, running teams, burning lime, build- 
ing, etc. He is a natural mechanic, and there seem to be few kinds of work in 
a new country to which he could not " turn his hand." When farm work was 
slack there was a demand for his skillful hands in other departments of manual 
labor, and no such a legacy as laziness was left him. 

In 1865 he was appointed surveyor-general; held the office four years; then 
became s])ecial agent of the customs department of the United .States Treasury, 
and hekl that position six years, retiring in the autumn of 1875. During tli(- past 
year he has superintended the construction of the main building of the Institu- 
tion for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, which is approaching completion as 
we prepare this sketch. It is a four-story stone structure, which, with the wings, 
built some years since, is two hundred and sixty-six feet long, costing, in all, 
about one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. 

General Nutting was a county commissioner in 1861 and 1862, and chosen 
state senator in 1864, attending only one session — winter of 1864-65 — and re- 
siofuino- to take the office of surveyor-o-eneral, which office he held several vears. 

In politics, he was originalh' an abolitionist, — one of tht- xoting class whose 
canilidatc for the Presidency in 1844 was [ames G. Binney. General Nutting 
was one of the "constituent" members of the republican party, ami has never 
abandoned it. From 1859 ^'^ 1864 he \vas sergeant-at-arms of the state senate, 
and has had, at times, something to do with the shaping of the policy of the 
party in this state. He is a man of considerable infiuence, considerate ami pru- 
dent, and a wise counselor. 

The General has his third wife. The first, Miss Orrilla M. Dickinson, of 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 279 

Amherst, Massachusetts, married on the 29th of January, 1846, died on the 24th 
of the next December, leaving a new-born son, Maynard L., who died in 1867. 
His second wife, who was Miss Mary EHza Foster, of Shutesbury, married on 
the 8th of May, 1848, and died childless on the 24th of December, 1856. His 
present wife, who was Miss Luthera A. Winter, of Amherst, was married on the 
1 2th of November, 1857, and has three children living-, and has lost two. 



HON. RANDALL K. BURROWS, 

PINE CITl'. 

RANDALL KING BURROWS, one of the leading men in Pine City. Pine 
county, is a son of Enoch Burrows, speculator and town builder, and Caro- 
line H. Randall, both of English pedigree. The Burrowses came over in the 
first half of the seventeenth century, and located immediately, or soon afterward,- 
at New London, Connecticut. Our subject was born at Mystic, in that state, on 
the 28th of November, 1829, and at two years of age went with his parents to 
West Troy, New York, where he attended a district school and clerked in a gro- 
cery store until about eighteen years of age, finishing his education in the high 
school at A'\lbany. . _ • 

In the summer of 1849 ^I''- Burrows made a trip to California, by way of the 
Isthmus; mined until the spring of 1853, and then returned to West Troy, hav- 
ing had moderate success in his venture on the Pacific slope. 

He was a bookkeeper in West Troy until 1857, when he came as far west as 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there engaging about four years in the manufacture of 
staves. In 1861 he went to Iron Ridge, Dodge county, in the same state, con- 
tinuing- the stave business. 

In 1869, just as the Saint Paul and Duluth railroad was opened, he settled in 
Pine City, now the county seat, and a smart little manufacturing town, lumber, 
staves and shingles being the leading articles. It is located on Snake river, and 
from seventy to eighty million feet of lumber pass the town annually. 

In 1874 Mr. Burrows represented the twenty-eighth senatorial district in the 
leoislature, beina on the engrossing committee, the committee on state prison, 
and the joint committee on taxes and tax laws, doing his heaviest and best work 
on the last named committee. He took a very independent course in the legis- 



2 8o THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

lature, showing great decision ami rirmness of character. Nothing can swerve 
him from the path to wliich dul\' jioints. 

Since locatiny; in Pine City, Mr. Burrows has been chairman of the town 
board of supervisors two terms, and a director in the school board the last seven 
or eight years, being always ready to do anything to advance the interests of his 
adopted home. He has unbounded faith in Minnesota, and expects it will be 
one of the foremost commonwealths ot the northwest. 

The afhlialions ol Mr. Burrows have always been with the republican party, 
but he is not so blind a partisan as not to detect and denounce errors in any 
party. Me attends the Presbyterian church, Init is not a nn-mber. 



HON. JOHN M. BERRY, 

FARIBAl'I/r. 

JOHN McDONOGH BERRY, of the supreme bench of Minnesota, and a 
native of Pittsfield, New Hampshire, was born on the iSth ot .September, 
1827; his parents being John Berry, merchant, and Mary Ann Brown )ice Hogan. 
The Berry family settled in southeastern New Hampshire nearly, and perhaps 
full\-, two centuries ago. The maternal grandfather of our subject was from 
Ireland. 

The youth of Judge Berry was devoted to the securing of an education ; he 
spent his last preparatory year at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts ; 
entered Yale College in September, 1843, when just sixteen years old, and gradu- 
ated in his twentieth year. He began to read law at Conconl, New Ham[)shire, 
with Judge Perley, afterward chief justice of that state; continued his readings 
with Hon. Moses Norris; was admitted to practice at a term of the supreme 
court hekl at Concord in July, 1850; practiced about two years at Alton, Belknap 
county, New Hami)shirc; came as far west as Janesville, Wisconsin, in the spring 
of 1853 ; was in practice there two short years, and then settled in Faribault, his 
home since then, with the exception of something'less than a year spent at Austin, 
Mower county, his business being the practice of law till he went on the bench. 
He is a thorough legal and general scholar, and ranks deservedly high among 
his profession in the state for his literary tastes and ac(]uirements. He may be 
classed as a thinker as distim'uished from a man of action. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 281 

Judge Berry was a member of the territorial house in the session of 1856-57, 
and chairman of the judiciary committee ; was a member of the state senate in 
1S63 and 1864, and chairman of the judiciary committee in that body also, and 
went on the bench of the supreme court in January, 1865. He was reelected in 
1S71, and his second term expired with the year 1878. He was elected to 
his present position before the legal practice in this state had become extensive, 
and without the opportunities for the practical work of his profession which some 
of his associates have enjoyed ; but he brings to the exercise of the high duties 
of his position a knowledge of legal principles acquired by careful and thought- 
ful reading, united to a broad and comprehensive judgment and an inflexible 
integrity, which, disdaining petty technicalities and seeking for the intrinsic 
justice of the case, has placed him second to no judge who ever held the office in 
this state in popular estimation. His opinions are terse, crisp and well written, 
and distinguished rather for the enunciation of some great general principle, 
which disposes oi the case, than tor minute discussions of minor and technical 
points. 

Judge Berry is a republican of whig antecedents, but has never been very 
active in politics. 

On the 26th of May, 1S53, Miss Alice A. Parker, then of Roscoe, Illinois, but 
a native of Centerville, Ohio, became the wife of Judge Berry, and they have 
four children. 



HON. HENRY N. SETZER, 

STILLWATER. 

HENRY NOLAN SETZER, a native of Montgomery county, Missouri, 
comes from a North German famil)-. His father, John Henry Setzer, came 
to the United States near the opening of the second war with England; fought 
on the American side, and then returned to Germany, and married Miss Amelia 
Nolan, whose great-grandfather fought on the side of James II at the battle of 
the Boyne, 1690. Henry was born on the 6th of October, 1825 ; was educated 
mainly at home, which he left when fourteen years old, and after spending a few 
years in Illinois he came to what is now Minnesota, reaching the present site of 
Stillwater on the 4th of July, 1843. 

Proceeding up the Saint Croix river as far as the Falls of Saint Croix, he here 



282 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

halted, and Taylor's Falls has since been his home nearly all the time. Me was 
engaged in lumbering, part of the time for others and part for himself, until 1H57, 
when he became warden of the State Prison, holding that position until January, 
i860. He was then appointed register of the land office, located at Cambridge, 
Isanti county, holding the office till Mr. Lincoln became President, in 1861. 

While warden of the State Prison, Mr. Setzer gave his leisure time to the 
reading of law ; before going into the land office was admitted to the bar, and 
after leaving that office commenced practice at Taylor's Falls, following the pro- 
fession to this date, and having a fair amount of business. He has a legal mind, 
is sharp ami honest in his profession, true to his client, and has a highly credit- 
able standing among the fraternity. 

Mr. Setzer was a member of the territorial legislature in 1849 i of •^'^^ territo- 
rial council in 1856 and 1857, and of the convention which formed the constitution 
of the state in the latter year, in all cases attending faithfully to his duties. He 
has been a life-long democrat, and heartily sympathized with the secessionists 
durino; the civil war. 

Mr. Setzer is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity, and has been 
deputy grand master of the state. At an early day he was master ot Saint John's 
Lodge, No. I, Stillwater, and was afterward master several times of Zion Lodge, 
No. 55. 



HON. EUGENE M. WILSON, 

MINNEAl'l)LIS. 

EUGENE McLANAHAN WILSON is the son of Edgar C. Wilson and 
Mary A. ncc Olliphant, and was born on the :^5th of DecemhiT, 1833, at 
Morgantown, Monongalia county, \'irginia, of .Scotch-Irish ancestors, who were 
among the very earliest families that settled in the X'irginia valley, in Augusta and 
Rockbridge counties. His grandfather Wilson was an active participant in the war 
for independence, as also was his maternal great-grandfather, who was a Griffin. 
Eugene M. received a rudimentary education, and prepared tor college at 
the Morgantown (Monongalia) Academy. He afterward attended Jefferson Col- 
lege, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he pursued a thorough course of 
study, graduating with honor in the class of 1852. Being possessed of inclina- 
tions favorable toward the legal profession, as offering the best opi)ortunities, he 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 28 







entered the office of his father, at Morgantown, where he prepared himself for 
the practice of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1855. His father was a lawyer 
of considerable ability. 

After beine admitted to the bar Mr. Wilson decided to come west. Acting 
on this determination, he, like tliousands of others, joined the "tide of emigra- 
tion " then pouring toward these fields of promise, and his experiences abun- 
dantly testify to the wisdom of Horace Greeley's advice to young men. The 
attractions that lured him hither were not " Like Dead Sea fruit, that tempts 
the eye but turns to ashes on the lips," but true realities, — " the reward of labor." 
He worked and studied no less faithfully, and with no less fatigue, than he who 
shows a calloused hand, and his reward is an assured and honorable position 
amone the leadincr liorhts of the Minnesota bar. Arrivino- in Minnesota, Mr. 
Wilson settled first at Winona; practiced there about a year, and then removed 
to Minneapolis (1857), where he has since lived and pursued his profession. He 
was appointed United States attorney by President Buchanan, and held the 
office during the four years of that administration. 

Mr. Wilson entered the Union army as captain of company A, ist Minnesota 
Cavalry, rendering effective and continuous service, fighting Indians on the fron- 
tier, until the expiration of his term of enlistment in 1863, when he returned to 
Minneapolis. 

He is, and always has been, a consistent adherent to the doctrines of the 
democratic party, and was, as such, elected to the forty-first congress from a 
republican district. As a member of the house, in which his father, grandfather 
and great-grandfather had sat, he worthily represented the people who had placed 
him there, and was uniformly successful in managing his bills. He was a member 
of the committees on public lands and Pacific railroads. After the expiration of 
his congressional term Mr. Wilson returned to Minneapolis, and resumed the 
practice of his profession. While in Washington, in 1872, without solicitation or 
knowledge on his part, he was nominated and elected to the office of mayor of 
Minneapolis. He was again elected to the same office in 1874. The bare men- 
tion of the fact that he held these offices in a strongly republican city is suffi- 
cient evidence of the estimation in which he is held by his fellow-citizens, and 
comments would be superfluous. He is always a delegate to the state democratic 
conventions, and was chairman of the Minnesota delegation to the national demo- 
cratic convention at Saint Louis that nominated the Hon. .Samuel J. Tilden for 
33 



284 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

President in 1S76. In 187S he was elected to the state senate of Minnesota, of 
which he is now a member. 

Mr. Wilson has been connected with the Masonic fraternity for the past 
twenty years. In 1875 was master of Khurum Lodi^e, of this city. He is a 
Knio-ht Templar, and has attained to the degree of Royal Arch Mason in the 
Scottish Rite. 

On the 6th of September, 1865, he was married in Minneapolis to Miss Mary 
Elizabeth, daughter of Major W'm. M. and Lucy Kimball. Major Kimball is one 
of the pioneers of this place, and was an officer in the Union army during the 
late rebellion. The fruits of Mr. Wilson's union are: Mary Olliphant, born on 
the i6th of May, 1867; Helen Kimball, born on the 6th of March, 1869, and 
Eugenia, born on the 23d of May, 1878. 

He is not united with any religious society, but attentls worship) at the Pres- 
byterian church, of which Mrs. Wilson is a member. Has been connected with 
the Hennepin County Bar Association since its organization, and holds an en- 
viable position as a representative of the legal profession. 



HON. GEORGE E. SKINNER, 

FAN/BAULT. 

GEORGE ELDRIDGE SKINNER, land commissioner for three railroad 
companies, having lands in Minnesota, dates his birth at LeRoy, Genesee 
county, New York, on the 8th of April, 1825. His immediate ancestors were from 
Williamstown, Massachusetts, and his father was Samuel Skinner, an attorney-at- 
law. The maiden name of his mother was Delia Colton, born in Rome, New York. 

George was educated at the LeRoy Seminary ; read law with his father; was 
admitted to the liar in 1847 '^^ Batavia, in his native county; soon afterward 
came to Hazel Green, Grant county, Wisconsin ; practiced there two short years; 
caught the gold fever early in the year 1849; joined the vanguard of overland 
adventurers bound for the Pacific coast; mined nearly two years and returned, 
having had fair success. 

Mr. .Skinner spent three years in Buffalo, New York, in the lumber business; 
one year in Tennessee, and in the autumn of 1856 settled in I*"aribault ; here, at 
first, running a saw-mill and flouring mill in company witli his father-in-law. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 285 

James Gibson. He was postmaster from i<S5 7 to 1861, under appointment of 
President Buchanan; subsequently farmed a few seasons, having land near town, 
and then became agent for the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railroad 
Company, to secure the right of way for the track of their Iowa and Minnesota 
division. About ten or eleven years ago he became land commissioner for the 
Saint Paul and Chicago, Minnesota Central, and the Hastings and Dakota rail- 
way companies, having under his charge more than a million acres of land. He 
is an efficient, active and perfectly reliable business-man, having the confidence 
of the entire community. 

Mr. Skinner was elected senator in 1857; attended the session held the fol- 
lowing winter (the first as a state), and only that one, there being no session the 
following winter. While in the legislature he appears to have been very influen- 
tial and successful. He secured the location at Faribault of the Institution for 
the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, of which, by the way, he 
is now a director; was the author of the homestead bill, and of the bill allowing 
parties one year in which to redeem property after foreclosure, both of which 
bills passed and became laws. He made a very useful member of the legisla- 
ture, leaving his impress on the laws of the state. 

Mr. Skinner has been a life-long democrat, and was a delegate to the national 
convention of his party held in 1872 and 1876. 

His religious connection is with the Congregationalists, of whose society, in 
Faribault, he is a trustee. His neighbors, who know him most intimately, have 
the highest opinion of his christian integrity; indeed, his moral character is above 
suspicion. 

The wife of Mr. Skinner was Miss Mary Elizabeth Gibson, daughter of James 
Gibson, of LeRoy, New York, where they were married on the 12th of October, 
1852. Mr. Gibson came to Faribault in 1856; was postmaster here for several 
years, a much respected man, dying a few years ago. 

Mr. and Mrs. Skinner have two children: Emma, the wife of Edward S. Pratt, 
of Painesville, Ohio, and James H., a student in Cornell University, New York. 

Mr. Skinner has been a careful, conscientious and successful operator, having 
a pleasant homestead and other building property in the city of Faribault, some 
stock in the Citizens' National Bank of Faribault, of which he is vice-president, 
and a large interest in a farm of twelve hundred acres in Blooming Prairie, 
Steele county, and another of four thousand acres at Taopi, Mower county. 



286 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

His accumulations, made wilh a commendable desire to develop the agricul- 
tmal and other wealth of the state, and by no means so extensive as to make 
him avaricious or inordinately grasping, are the result of shrewdness and fore- 
sight in making investments, and a prudent economy in his expenditures. He 
is a ti-enerous supporter of the Christian church and of benevolent institutions, 
kind to the poor, and a true friend and well-wisher to everybody. 



MARCUS Q. BUTTERFIELD, 

AXOKA. 

MARCUS OUINCY BUTTERFIELD, attorney-at-huv, and a resident of 
Anoka since i860, springs from an English family who early settled in 
Middlesex county, Massachusetts, and spread thence all over the country. Mar- 
cus is a son of Asa Butterfield, a soldier in the war of 181 2, and a grandson of 
Jesse Butterfield, who was in the earlier war with England. He was born in 
Farmington, Maine, on the 7th of April, 1815. His mother, before her marriage, 
was Hannah Jordan. 

Asa Butterfield had a farm on which he reared his family, apprenticing Marcus 
at the age of fifteen to a shoemaker, with whom he remained over two yc^ars, 
after which he obtained an academic education in his native town, lie was not 
partial to the shoemaker's trade, but continued to work at it for several years, 
giving such leisure time as he had to the study of law. 

In 1845 Mr. Butterfield started for the west, spending some time in different 
parts of Ohio, and finally, in 1848, locating in Dayton. There he worked for 
some time at his trade, afterward completing his study of the law in the office of 
John \V. Lowe, Esq., of that city, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. Wv. 
practiced there until i860, in the; spring ol which year he settled in Anoka, and 
was getting fairly into practice when ci\il war commenced. 

In the summer of 1862 Mr. Butterfield enlisted in the Union army, going in 
as first lieutenant of company A, 8th Minnesota Infantry. In August of that \ear 
the Sioux outbreak occurred, and this regiment spent two seasons on the frontier. 

In 1863 the captain of company A was killed in Meeker county, in a skirmish, 
and Lieutenant Butterfield had command the next two years, the regiment dur- 
ing the last year being at the south. It was mustered out in July, 1865. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 287 

Since that date Captain Butterfiekl has been in the practice of his profession, 
doing a remunerative business. In local enterprises he is one of the foremost 
men in Anoka. 

He has been county attorney several terms since resuming practice at the 
close of the rebellion ; is now city attorney, and is a popular man, being most 
esteemed where best known. Whatever he undertakes to do he does well, and 
undertakes nothing which he cannot do. 

In politics, he was originally a whig, and has been an unwavering republican 
since this party was organized. He is quite active, often attending district and 
state conventions, and is among the local leaders of the party. 

Captain Butterfiekl has lost two wives and has a third. His first wife was 
Miss Elizabeth McKechnie, of Norridgewock, Maine, chosen in 1845; she died 
in Dayton, Ohio, in 1S51, leaving one daughter, Ella A., the late Mrs. Oscar L. 
Cutter, of Anoka. His second wife was Miss Lucy W. Beale, of Farmington, 
Maine, married in 1854; she died, leaving no issue, in 1868. His present wife 
was Mrs. Amanda M. Johnson, of Anoka. 



HON. JAMES B. WAKEFIELD, 

BLUE EARTH CITV. 

JAMES BEACH WAKEFIELD, lieutenant-governor of Minnesota, and was 
born at Winsted, Litchfield county, Connecticut, on the 21st of March, 1828, 
his parents being Luman Wakefield, a physician, and Betsy Ann nee Rockwell. 
Both are New England families of English pedigree. James received his pre- 
paratory education at Westfield, Massachusetts, and Jonesville, Saratoga county 
New York; entered the sophomore class of Trinity College, Hartford, in 1843, 
and graduated three years later, having the third appointment, a poem, at the 
commencement. 

He read law with his brother-in-law. Judge E. T. Wilder, then of Painesville, 
Ohio, and now of Red Wing, Minnesota; was admitted to the bar at Painesville 
in 1 851; practiced two years at Delphi, Indiana; came to Minnesota in 1854, and 
after practicing about two years at .Shakopee, removed to Blue Earth City in 
1856, — that was before the county of Faribault was organized, he being one of 
the four persons who did that work ; the other three were Henry P. Constans, 



288 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Samuel B. llibler, and Spcer Spencer. After being in the practice here three 
or four years Mr. Wakefield was appointed deputy agent at the Lower Sioux 
ag(-ncy, returning to Blue Earth City just before the Indian outbreak of 1S62. 

In 1869 he received from President Grant the appointment of receiver of the 
land office for the Winnebago district; the office afterward was removed to Jack- 
son, anil is now located at Worthington. lie was receiver for si.\ years antl then 
resigned. 

Farming has been the principal business of Mr. Wakefield for the last four 
or five years. I !(• has two hundred and forty acres adjoining his home under 
good improvement, and wild lands in Faribault, Jackson and Nobles counties. 

Mr. Wakefield was a member of the first state legislature, he being in the 
house; was a member of the same branch of the legislature in 1863 and 1866, 
being speaker the latter year, and was in the state senate in 1867, 1868 and 1869, 
resieniniT in the middle of his second term to take the office of receiver of the 
land office. 

In the senate Mr. Wakefield was chairman of the committee on railroads and 
on the judiciary committee, holding a highly inlluential position in that body. 

He was elected lieutenant-governor in 1S75, and reelected in 1877, still hold- 
ing that office. As a presiding officer he is dignified, promjjt and impartial, and 
is very popular with the members of the senate. Nature has done her share in 
fitting him to be a presiding officer, giving him a tall, manly form, a liberal degree 
of corporeity (he being six feet and two inches tall and weighing two hundred 
and fifty pounds), a noble bearing, the manners of a gentleman, and brains. 

Mr. Wakefield has trained with the republican party since its organization ; 
was a delegate to the national convention which nominated General Grant in 
1868, and chairman of the Minnesota delegation, and was a delegate in 1876 to 
the convention which nominated Mr. Hayes, and was on the committee on reso- 
lutions. In a double sense he is one of the tall men of southern Minnesota. He 
is a blue-lodge Mason. 

Mr. Wakefield has been married since August, 1864, his wife being Nannctte 
Reinhart, of Blue Earth City. 

At an early day in Faribault county Mr. Wakefield was register of deeds and 
county commissioner, and has made himself a very useful citizen of the county, 
striving assiduously for its best interests and the material welfare of his adopted 
home. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 289 

He is one of the foremost men in the county in railroad matters, and as we 
write (in the autumn of 1878) a strong force is grading a road which in a few 
months will bring the railroad train to this point, — a consummation long devoutly 
hoped for by the citizens of Blue Earth Cit)-. In furthering this grand enter- 
prise, probably no man has been more influential than Mr. Wakefield. 



MONS GRINAGER, 

WOR THING TON. 

MONS GRINAGER, a representative man among the Scandinavians of 
Minnesiota, is a native of Hadeland, Norway, where he was born on the 
7th of October, 1832. His father, Hans Grinager, a farmer, and at one time a 
member of the legislature, died when Mons was three years old. The mother 
was Marthe Svining, who died in the old country in 1864. 

The subject of this sketch received an ordinary common-school education ; 
farmed in his native land until twenty-one years of age, then came to this coun- 
try and farmed one year in Walworth county, Wisconsin. In 1854 he visited 
Saint Paul, Minnesota; spent six months there; located that year in Decorah, 
Iowa; was in the general mercantile trade there until 1858, and then settled on 
wild land in the town of Bath, Freeborn county, Minnesota, farming there 
steadily till after the rebellion had broken out. 

In January. 1862, Mr. Grinager went into the service as captain of company 
K, 15th Wisconsin, and served three years, his regiment being most of the time 
in the army of the Cumberland. He was in twenty-one battles and numerous 
skirmishes, and received only one wound, — that was at Stone River, laying him 
up about three months, — the only period when he was off duty. 

In 1865 Captain Grinager returned to his farm in Freeborn county, and 
though in some office nearly all the time since that date, he still keeps his home- 
stead, cultivating it just now by proxy. He was town clerk during all the time 
he was in Bath ; was county commissioner two terms, and in 1870 was appointed 
revenue assessor for the first Minnesota district, holding that office till it was 
abolished in 1873. He also held for a short period at that time the office of as- 
sistant collector for the same district. 

In 1874 Captain Grinager was appointed register of the United States land 



290 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

office at Worthington, and has since resided here, slill holding that office. He is 
a sclf-educatctl, intelligent man, and an efficient and reliable government officer. 

He has always been a republican, and in 1873 was nominated by his party as 
a candidate for state treasurer, and was defeated through the granger movement. 

He is a member of the Lutheran church, though there is no organization of 
that kind at Worthington. He has an unblemished record and a high standing 
in the community. 

The wife of Captain Grinager was Miss Annie Egge, a native of Norwa)-. 
They were married at Decorah, Iowa, on the 8th of June, 1856, ami have six 
children: Anne Maria, Henry Adolph, Caroline, Alexander, Welhilm Frederick 
and Harris Norman. 



HON. HENRY W. HOLLEY, 

WINNEBAGO CITV. 

HENRY WHITCOMB HOLLEY, a member of the Minnesota constitu- 
tional convention, and eight years receiver of the United States land 
office at Winnebago City, is a son of David Holley, junior, a farmer, and Betsey 
-S. Randall, and was born at Pierrepont Manor, Jefferson county. New York, on 
the 5th of May, 1828. His grandfather, David Holley, senior, was a Vermonter, 
and carried a musket in i 775-1 782. The Randalls were early settlers in Massa- 
chusetts. 

Henry received his preparatory education at Union Academy, Belleville, in 
his native county; entered Norwich University, Vermont, a college for engineers, 
in 1S47; graduated in 1849, and spent seven years as a civil engineer on rail- 
roads in Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana, commencing on the Cleveland and Pitts- 
burgh road. 

In 1856 Mr. Holley came to Minnesota; edited the Chatfield "Republican" 
until 1 86 1 ; received tliat year from President Lincoln the appointment ot re- 
ceiver of the United States land office for the Winnebago district, and served 
eight years. During part of this [jeriod, commencing in 1865, he was chief engi- 
neer of the Southern Minnesota railroad, of which he was also one of the original 
incorporators, and was connected with that enterprise until 1874, being general 
manager and superintendent the last four years. 



^ 




y 




THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



293 



Since the date just mentioned Mr. HoUey has been engaged in farming, hav- 
ing eight hundred acres adjoining the village, and most of it under fine improve- 
ment. Mr. Holley was a member of the constitutional convention in 1857, and 
was serving his second term in the state senate when he received the appointment 
of receiver of the land office, and resigned the senatorial chair in order to be 
eligible to the other office. 

He began political life as a " barn-burner," or free-soil democrat ; joined the 
republican party at its formation, and still adheres firmly to its tenets. In early 
life he was quite active in politics, but latterly has done little more than vote. 

The wife of Mr. Holley was Miss Eliza Jane Christie, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, 
their union being dated November 5, 1855. They lost one child, and have four 
daughters and one son living: Maud, Kate, Elizabeth, Mabel and Harry, — all 
of whom reside at home. 

Mr. Holley has lived a very busy life, usually devoting all his spare time to 
literary pursuits. In 1855 Crosby, Nichols and Co., of Boston, published a vol- 
ume of his poems, entitled "Moods and Emotions"; in 1859 1"*^ printed, at the 
Chatfield "Republican" office, "What I Think," a satire; and in 1876, "The 
Politicians, and other Poems," the last published by Claxton, Remsen and Haffel- 
finger, of Philadelphia. We know not how we can better enrich these pages than 
by making liberal extracts from these three volumes, which are full of humor, wit 
and noble sentiments : 



[From " Moods and Emotions."] 

TO . 



A song for thee, dearest, I send from afar, 
Where my feet have been roaming without guid- 
ing star; 
Wilt thou set it to music, and sing when I come. 
Disheartened, world-weary, back, back to our 
home ? 

A song for thee, dearest, a throb from my heart ; 
A lyric that is of my being a part; 
An offering true-hearted I lay at thy shrine. 
Its prose-words made poems through music of 
thine. 

A song for thee, dearest, a song that may tell, 
In true words, the secret, I love thee how well; 
That puts beyond question all songs in eclipse. 
Whenever in music it's breathed from your lips. 
34 



A song for thee, dearest, a musical vow, 
That whispers, forever I'll worship as now ! 
An outburst of passion from heart all aflame. 
That in music and rhythm enhallows thy name ! 

Let the tune be a zephyr, melodious and free, 
As true unto nature as thou art to me ! 
Which thy soul can embrace as if 'twere a friend, 
And my words and thy music in melody blend. 

Not a sad tune, or gay one, but half way between 
High gladness, deep sorrow, let it intervene; 
That thus it interpret by musical art. 
Our joy when we meet, and grief when we part. 



294 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



HUMBUG— A SONNET. 

Inllated prince! tliy right is undisputed, No treason in thy camp; mankind in wonder 

By red republican, democrat, or tory, Gazes upon thy banners, which the whole air fills, 

To reign supreme in all thy " Buncombe " glory. And dearly bow unto thy wordy thunder, 

Tliough it is true thy ranks are still recruited Pealed in defense of either laws or jiills. 

From every race, and are ail hues and sizes; Dearly they bow; for, though you kindly make 
Vet still, what most philosophers surprises them. 

Is, that they all so bravely cling together They, as true subjects, are obliged to take them. 
In every kind of work and every kind of weather. 

Extracts from "What 1 Think" — A .Satire. 

A PORTRAIT. 



He touches learning with his finger-tips; 
His mind drinks not, it only tastes and sips 
At Nature's fountains, and his earnest thought 
Is but a semblance, but a trick that's caught ; 



As noisy herald and devoted knight. 
Of every faded belle who tries to write I 
A sleek beau Brummel of the upper ten,- 
A II fait at flirting handkerchief or pen, 



He's Folly's fashion-plate, and something more,^ — He walks among the Poets clean and nice, 
The well-bred pioneer that goes before A dreaming barber's male — in Paradise. 



WANTED. 



Wanted ! a Poet ! one that can go o'er 
Some other track than that well trod before ; 
An independent thinker, who dares look 
With eyes wide open into Nature's book ; 
Who is no willing slave to foreign rules; 
Who apes no customs of established schools ; 



Who studies not so much the standard books, 
As his own country's mountains, lakes, and brooks; 
Whose song is not an echo, but a peal 
Fresh, clear and ringing, w-hich men's hearts can 
feel ! 



ADVICE TO A RHYMER. 



To you, and such as you, \s\\o would write rhyme, 

Let an old stager speak a word in time ; 

Beware of that important pronoun I, 

That everlastingly will rhyme to sigh. 

Great as your own grief to yourself may seem. 

To all, save you, it is a trifling theme ; 

Your wild devotion to some pretty girl 

That sets your love-struck senses in a whirl, 

Although 'tis well, perhaps, that she should iiear. 

Is quite insipid to another's ear! 

Love if you will, but of it make no fuss, — 



As if it was a mighty thing to us, — 

For most men live and love as well as you, 

And marry partners without more ado ; 

Be not too hasty to appear in print ! 

(This you will find a very useful hint) — 

'Twill save you from those bitter pangs untold. 

An empty pocket and a book unsold ! 

Remember this, no publisher will try 

To sell what he's not fool enough to buy ! 

And when an author, book-struck, pays the bill, 

His baby's birth is always very "still." 



A R?:CEIPT. 



Here's a receipt, 'tis really short and terse, — 
Take weak emotions and still weaker verse, 
;\ preface that declares 'twas friendship asked 
That such ambrosia sliould be thus uncasked, 



To this attach the modest author's phiz, 
*(The better sale the uglier it is,) 
Then advertise the mixture in the "Post," 
And you've a modern Poet at first cost. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



295 



VOX POPULI. 



Popular applause, they term "a hit," 

And are at least so very proud of it, 

That no doubt many, if not all, believe 

'Tis that which true worth ever doth receive ; 

Mistaken fools ! do ye not know true worth 

Has always been a drug o'er all the earth ? 

And that which best deserves men's first rewards 

Is last to get his commonest regards? 

This popular applause doth seldom last. 

It rises rapidly and falls as fast ; 

The book that feeds to-day its prejudice. 

To-morrow may receive its loudest hiss. 

So long as to its foibles you bend. 

This mighty public is a generous friend ; 

And spares nor gifts, nor words, nor great parade, 

To prove your trust will never be betrayed ; 

But if it needs, speak chidings in its ear. 

And you will quickly find, 'tis not sincere; — 

And that remorseless, evermore, as fate. 

It can replace false friendship with pure hate. 

When will the time come, when our authors dare 



Write less, perhaps, but nearer what they are .' 
Be more content to be less idly praised 
For making books, by silly tricks upraised .'' 
When shall they seek, like students, for the truth, 
And when they print, ask not for public ruth 1 
When in their work-shops shall the frames be 

wrought, 
The pure ideals of true sterling thought 1 
Alas ! we know not, nor presume to say 
How long will last the follies of to-day; 
Frivolity is now enthroned in state. 
And authors borrow what they should create ; 
Genius (like Beauty) is at best skin-deep. 
The surface sparkles while the soul's asleep ; 
Talent produces not good sense, — but whims, 
And on the froth of human nature swims; — 
Its deep, still waters it doth never reach ; — 
Contented with the pebbles on the beach, 
In dread of billows that it fears to stem. 
It finds no pearls by diving after them. 



[Extracts from " Tlie Politicians."] 



Upon the Capitol's bronze door. 
This creed is written, o'er and o'er, 
There is no God but God, 'tis clear, 
And Caucus is his prophet here I 
By him are patched all party rents, 
And fused discordant elements; 
By him from every sort of earth 
Is squeezed the essence of pure worth ; 
Minds that incline to fly apart 
Are soldered by his wondrous art; 
Till every meteoric star 
Is orbited as planets are ; 
And made to systernatic move 



KING CAUCUS. 



Within a predetermined groove, 
Revolving, in an endless ring. 
Around this central party king ! 
'Tis he can tie with subtle tether 
The lions and the lambs, together; 
Make bitter foes together lie. 
And hug their chains enjoyingly ; 
Make all accept with favoring eyes. 
Things that at heart they most despise ; 
Stand trustingly on platforms hollow. 
And hateful creeds unquestioned swallow : 
And graceful yield their honest views 
To those pressed in by party screws ! 



JUDGE BUNKEM. 

He was a worker, ah ! to spy him One's soul with admiration burning 

With many books of reference nigh him; Stood paralyzed at so much learning! 

And hear him talk of statutes hid He was so deep in statute lore, 

By Osiris in the Pyramid ; He favored nothing made before. 

Which he'd dug out, sifted and sorted, But for the good of common weal, 

And would in due time have reported, All laws would alter, or repeal ; 



296 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



There was not tlien in force a law, 
But in it Bunkem found some flaw ; 
Such fearful cracks he found to mend, 
His work seemed like to have no end; 
Ah, happy state, where men are born. 
Fit any station to adorn ! 
Ah, happy state, whose tinkers take 
Such endless pains good laws to make ! 
Ah, happy state, which never lacks 

THE 

From leaders down, through rank and fi 

One brilliant hope did all beguile ; 

One bright idea from afar 

Hung over like a holy star, 

And led them by its guiding light 

To |)astures fresh beyond the fight! 

One grand idea, terse, and clear, 

A pithy utterance, deep, sincere. 

To bannered host, a trumpet tone. 



These volunteers for closing cracks ! 
Where statesmen, like Minerva, jump 
Full armed from every handy stump ; 
Whose mouths are seemingly inspired 
To speak on anything desired, 
And without cither fact or date. 
On all things which concern the state, 
Can everlasting bloviate ! 

PROPHET'S BANNER. 

e. To hungry dogs, a juicy bone ; 

A crusade call, a high ajipeal. 
All hearts and ears could hear and feel. 
Like voice of hermit Peter, when 
He tilted with the Saracen ; 
A promise, not of empty name. 
That bubble from the pipe of fame. 
But this reward, for arduous toils, 
" To those who win belong the spoils ! " 



HON. BLAB. 

.Vppropriate was his name of Blab, 

For he'd the incarnate gift of gab. 

And seemed to think a statesman's strength 

Was measured by his speech's length ; 

And that it showx-d especial power 



To drizzle, drizzle, by the hour. 
W^hate'er the subject of debate 
Blab always did participate. 
And got his jaw in soon or late. 



I am getting at last the hang of the ropes. 
Succeeding, in fact, beyond even my hopes; 
And am working, like any industrious flea. 
To be very like what a statesman should be. 
Fve been called by the speaker three times to the 

chair, 
And all say I sat very creditably there. 
I regularly draw the per diem I earn. 
And have motioned, six times, " that this house 

do adjourn," 
And my motions have carried, which shows very 

clear 

TH] 



HON. TIMOTHY PATCH. 

How my influence acts and is spreading down 

here. 
A luckier star seems to send me its ray. 
And glory says plainly. Patch, hurry this way ! 
For the seat 'mong his peers, which great Twee- 
dledum quit. 
That I'm in, shows at \tis\. prima-facie I'm fit; 
The burden of proof lies with those who deny it, 
And if I'm discreet perhaps no one will try it ; 
For as many a coin of light weight freely passes. 
So fools often pass for wise men with the masses. 



CARPET-BAGGER. 



If auglu in man our faith would stagger, 
"1" would be a genuine carpet-bagger. 
Those hungry ])ests the country scouring, 
And all things lying loose, devouring! 
Who'd tear the holiest ties asunder, 
So that the crime gave chance for plunder, 



And let the state they've sworn to cherish. 

By their own evil passions perish I 

Like vipers to her bosom creeping. 

To strike their poisoned fangs while sleeping; 

Then glut their gluttony, by eating 

The very carcass they've been cheating ! 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



297 



SILENCE AS A POLITICAL LEVER. 



The average voter surely thinks 

Old Egypt's wise one is her Sphynx ; — 

Prone lying on the desert sands, 

Its great head resting in its hands ; — ■ 

Looking from out its mystic eyes, 

Profoundly as becomes the wise ; 

Yet on all subjects not one word 

From its stern jaws is ever heard ; 

Its power is vested in its pose. 

And steadfast gaze beyond its nose. 

Far off, into the desert bleak. 

Unswayed by any Arab clique : 

Thus, rising candidate, should you, 

If you would be successful, do ! 

Don't imitate the pioneer 

Who goes before, the way to clear ; 

He fool-like talks, and writes, and hacks. 

And for reward gets stubborn whacks ; 



The path these gabby fools thus tread, 
I tell you never butters bread ! 
One little heedless word may yet 
Your brilliant chances all upset ! 
Beware the charm of talking well; 
In silence lies a surer spell; 
The power of swaying crowds with ease 
Like Bunkem, or Demosthenes, 
Is not that sweet and precious gift. 
Which does an aspirant uplift 
Above his fellows, better far 
Be speechless as dumb oxen are, 
But wise in look, old statesmen say, 
(And who knows better sure than they,) 
That all the power of eloquence 
Cannot compete with silent sense. 
All, all agree, that dumb conceit 
Is just the toughest thing to beat. 



[Miscellaneous Poems. 



IN MEMORIAM. 



All, all of my life underlying, 
Is still the sweet memory of thee ! 
More hallowed by time, never dying, 
Growing hourly more sacred to me ; — 
A memory unsullied, untainted, 
A remembrance devoid of regret ; 
A picture of one truly sainted. 
In my heart's inmost recesses set ! 

Not the grief that succumbs to Time's healing; 

Or the memory its change can destroy ; — 

Not an old man's exhaustion of feeling, 

Or the fickle heart-sobs of a boy 

Are mine, but like zealot untiring, 

Whose altars are ever aflame. 

Each act, word, thought, deed, or desiring 

Of life, is inwrought with thy name. 

What thou hoped I might be, I endeavor 
With all my best efforts to be ; 
Death claimed thee, yet Death does not sever 
Thy guardian spirit from me; 



I hear still thy Mother lips saying, 
" Look up where the brighter stars shine"; — 
Thus oft, from the cold grave's decaying, 
Thy soul, as of old, speaks to mine ! 

Thus, ever above me are shining 

Thy precepts with spiritual light; — 

To the cloud o'er my soul, silver lining; — 

On my dark'ning path, radiance bright ; — 

From the skies a soul-ray that will never, 

To the boy, whom thou worshipped, grow dim ;- 

From the dead past, a Mother's endeavor, 

To smooth life's rough journey for him. 

With my motives of action grown clearer, 
This thought brings me fiercest regret, 
That life's labor hath brought me no nearer 
To the ideal mark by thee set ; 
If my heart over failure is fretting. 
Ah, Mother! the most which I rue. 
The pang that leaves deepest regretting 
Is that I, to thy hopes, am untrue ! 



298 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



THANK GOD FOR DEATH. 



A rumor through the village spread, 

And tattle held awhile its peace ; 
For in the presence of the dead, 

'Tis fit our daily work should cease; 
And though, while living, it is meet 

To never pardon sinners — yet, 
'Tis well, that with the winding sheet. 

We try our hatreds to forget. 

And she was dead ; a branded name. 

From earthly rolls had been erased. 
What matters now the bitter shame 

Which, with her life, was interlaced.' 
Tiie taunt, the jibe, the scornful sneer. 

O'er what she left undone, or did.' 
These tools with which men torture here, 

Are laid down with the coffin lid ! 

A sweeter flower there never bloomed 

Within the tropic's flowery zone ; 
When years ago, sweet hope illumed. 

And on her childish pathway shone. 
Who could have dreamed, who saw her then, — 

Like Leila,* " form of life and light " — 
That such a star of beauty, when 

It set, should have so wild a night? 

And she is dead; forgetfulness, 

From those who once were loving friends, 
She heeds not, recks not, wretchedness 

No longer o'er her head, extends 



Its grasping, all-embracing arms; 

For with our breath, our troubles cease. 
And gentle death, from hates and harms, 

Brings to the sufferer sweet release. 

Yes, she is dead, thank God for rest ! 

Thank God that lies are hushed at last; 
And that her sins, not proved but guessed. 

Before a higher court have passed. 
Thank God for death, which loosed the clutch 

Upon her throat, of virtuous hate; 
The power which frees the grip of such 

Is often benefactor great. 

Thank God for death ; the cruel foe 

For weary souls to fear and dread. 
Is not what brings release from woe. 

And stops the aches of heart and head ; 
Not cruel tyrant come to crush 

Too soon the hopes of happy life. 
But angel with sweet voice to hush 

The agonies of mortal strife. 

Thank God for death ! eternal rest ! 

The rescue of the heart from pain ! 
The quietude of slumber blest, 

Never to be disturbed again. 
The brightest rays of light illume 

Ofttimes what seems our darkest path ; 
Death's shadow brings not always gloom. 

But more than lisrht a radiance hath. 



ESTRANGED. 



We frequent the old haunts no more. 

As often once together; 
And mutual joys so dear of yore, 

Have broke restraining tether; 
The hours that once were glad and fleet, 

Are now no longer cheery, 
And every forest walk and seat. 

To me seems cold and dreary ! 

The autumn moon, that once so bright 
Shone o'er each hill and hollow. 

Where we in chase of heart delight. 
True friendship's lead did follow; — 

* " Hers was a form of life and light. 
That seen became a part of sight. 



Still shines, but ah I so pale and cold 

Is every beam it glances. 
It seems no more the moon of old. 

That thrilled my youthful fancies. 

In other climes where you now roam 

With stranger faces round you, 
Perhaps remembrance does not come 

With vague regrets to wound you ;- 
But unto me who here remain. 

By thonght companioned only. 
Remembrance, o'er and o'er again. 

Reminds to make me lonely. 

And rose, wliere'er I turned my eye, 
The morning star of memory." — Hvron. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



299 



To you the active Present brings 

A solace for all sorrow ; 
To me the sluggish Past still clings, 

And clouds each coming morrow; 
You bask in sunshine of To-day, 

Or climb its clouds, victorious; 
I idly seek to catch a ray 

Which yesterday seemed glorious! 

You drink from life's joy-giving springs. 

This world to you is real ; 
While my heart, spite of reason, clings 

To pleasures all ideal ; 
You've learned the trick of winning fame. 

And fortune crowns your scheming; 
While I, nor gold nor glory claim 

As my reward for dreaming ! 

Upon the solid ground you stand, 

And deal in fact, not fiction ; 
The poet-phrases I deem grand. 

To you seem wordy diction ; 
And while to some exalted thought 

My brooding mind is clinging. 
You act, and lo ! the deed is wrought, 

About which I've been singing! 

Success upon you smiles serene, 

And wreathes your brow with glory ; 

No bleak disasters intervene. 
To dim your future story ; 



You win what here men covet most, — 

Position, honor, splendor; 
I live to little purpose, lost, 

In musings vague or tender! 

And thus we two, who were such friends, 

When on life's voyage we started. 
Have grown as strangers, hopes, aims, ends. 

Of both our lives have parted; 
I, from my dreamland palace, sneer 

At your cold worldly scheming, 
While you fling back, with taunt and jeer, 

Contempt on all my dreaming ! 

But when 'tis o'er, and both have passed 

The mystic Future's portals. 
And to us is revealed at last 

The idle aims of mortals, 
May not the joy revive again 

That bound us with its tether, 
And souls that seem so coldly twain, 

Have haunts once more together? 

Or is the hope and longing vain, 

That haunts me in my dreaming? 
And shall I never see again 

Thy face with friendship beaming ? 
But sailing o'er the unknown sea, 

Shall we still drift and sever, 
I naught to you or you to me, 

But strangers cold, forever? 



MADNESS. 



Thinking, thinking, ever thinking, 

Thoughts that rack the seething brain ; 

From no threatened danger shrinking. 
Hugging as a pleasure, pain ; — 

Voiceless, heedless, bends a weeper. 

O'er a clod-bound, senseless sleeper! 

("rlaring at the gentle moonbeam, 
Scoffing at earth's gladdest mood ; 

Laughing when the lightning's far gleam. 
And the tempest fiends intrude ;■ 

Eyes so watchful, restless, sunken, 

Brain with brimming frenzy drunken ! 

Sorrow all the thin face bleaching, 

Anguish on each feature traced ; 
Hatred blent with sad beseeching, 



Prayer and curses interlaced ; 
Each a sad and mystic token 
That the fragile vase is broken ! 

Idol, who was once so peerless. 
Lying prostrate, overthrown ; 

Pleasant home, deserted, cheerless. 
Garden with rank weeds o'ergrown ; 

Heart bereft of human feeling, 

111 beyond all human healing ! 

Darkness struggling with Creation, 
Proserpine in realms of Dis, 

Haunt us, yet such desolation 

Hath no gloomier path than this ! 

Reason from its throne descending. 

Into chaos never ending ! 



."lOO 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



PET. 



Who slie is, or wliere she is 

Known is to but few ; 
Tiniest bit of innocence 

Childhood ever knew : 
Since no doubt your eyes and iicrs 

Never may have met, 
I,isten, and I'll tell you why 

We have named her Pet. 

There may be in other nests 

Eyes of birds as bright. 
Hut I know they cannot shine 

With a purer light ; 
If you could but see them once, 

You would ne'er forget, 
And could then the reason guess 

Why we call her Pet. 

Down her neck in waving curls 

Hangs her golden hair. 
Clustering round an open brow 

As the lilies fair; 
Whilst her cheeks in blooming tinge 

Doth the rose eclipse. 
And her teeth the purest pearls. 

Rubies seem her lips ! 



She is neither old or wise 

In the rules of art; 
Wisdom does not guide her tongue, 

Nor deceit her heart; 
On the threshold of her life 

Standing without guile. 
Lighting up our darkened souls 

With her sunny smile. 

Innocence is in her air. 

Truth is on her tongue ; 
Sweeter lyric on this earth 

Poet never sung; 
Envy that with poisoned sting 

Older maidens fret, 
Never yet hath cast a shade 

On the brow of Pet. 

Who can blame us.' we who know 

.\11 her witch'ries well. 
That we feel with hearts aglow. 

Love unspeakable ; 
That we often breathe the prayer. 

That our God will let 
Never any bleak despair, 

Cloud the life of Pet. 



TOO LATE. 



Time seemed so long, I once believed 

Wealth could be won, and then a name ; 

But ah 1 I find the first achieved, 

Has (juite destroyed all hope of fame. 

For time is short, instead of long ; 

And he who once to Mammon kneels. 
Has lost the power to break the thong 

That binds him to its chariot wheels. 

Once chained, adieu to poet dreams! 

Life's best emotions crushed and stilled ; 
Until with restless, grasping schemes, 

Each cell of brain and heart is filled. 

And so, when pierced by vague regret 
That life to me is death, I come 



By stealth to vow allegiance yet, 

I find the muse, once worshijied, dumb I 

I find too late that she has fled. 
Veiling from me her sacred fire ; 

And in my heart is left instead, 
Only a miser's gross desire ; — 

A gross desire from day to day 

To add more dollars to the pile; — 

A business habit I obey, 

With heart revolting all the while; — 

Only a miser's gross desire 

To live and grow in wealtli. .^h ! fate, 
That I should have no motive high'r. 

Or having it, should liave too late. 



II 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



301 



TO MY WIFE. 



If wine is improved by the keeping, 

Why not love if 'tis tender and true ? 

Should passion go yawning and sleeping 
Because it is not fresh and new ? 

Must age, the sweet dream of the lover, • 
With a ruthless awaking destroy ? 

And the man be so proud to get over 
What made him so happy a boy ? 

Does there grow less ecstatic enjoyment 
As we go toward the foot of the hill ? 

Does this galley-slave business employment 
The heart's best desires fulfill ? 

Shall we yield to the youngsters love's glory. 
Its halo, its passion, its flame? 

Of this life all the best of the story. 

And we take mere money and fame ? 

Away with such nonsense, for truly 
Love is, as it should be, like wine ; 

Though at first just a little unruly, 
The older, the nearer divine. 



Is the dream to the boy of his treasure. 

When her hand and her heart shall be won, 

A greater delight than the measure 

To the man, of her worth, when 'tis done .' 

Does the hope of the boy that she'll prove him 
A good and true wife bring more bliss. 

Than the sunshine the man has above him 
Who knows that his wife is just this.? 

Is the grace of the maid more enchanting. 
More enchanting the words of the bride. 

Than the wife found in all things not wanting. 
Whose virtues are tested and tried ? 

Then away with the fanciful notion 

That to youth should belong all love's zeal, 
All the zest of its truest devotion. 

Or that age should its passion conceal.' 

Away with such nonsense, for truly 
Love is, as it should be, like wine ; 

Though at first just a little unruly. 
The older, the nearer divine. 



JOCK JOHNSON— A FINANCIAL PROBLEM. 



Jock Johnson rich .' Pray tell me how 

His bark so soon did weather 
Cape Poverty, and guide its prow 

To seas where no storms gather ! 
Did some rich uncle die and leave 

Two millions to his credit. 
And did the nephew's heart then grieve. 

As if some dagger bled it ? 
No ? Then perhaps, with instinct keen, 

He made it in the scramble 
On Wall street, where good men are seen 

To daily go and gamble.' 



No.? Well then, may be, lucky man. 

One day, when out exploring 
For mines, he found the buried can 

In which Kidd did his storing.' 
No.' Then I frankly give it up ; 

'Tis quite beyond my guessing 
To tell just how he filled his cup 

With the auriferous blessing ! 
Ah, mortal frail ! how weak appears 

Your shrewd mind's guesswork pageant. 
When this is all : — for two short years 

Jock was an Indian agent ! 



THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION — SIXTY TO TWENTY-TWO. 

In the present house of representatives there are sixty officers and soldiers who served in the 
Confederate army, and twenty-two Union officers and soldiers. — Newspaper. 



The cloud of senseless hate hath passed, 
The stormy sky is clearing ; 

Above us shines serene at last 
The bow of promise cheering! 
35 



The vulgar, spiteful voice is hushed. 
The cry for vengeance hateful ; 

The nation once so nearly crushed 
Magnanimous grows, and grateful ! 



W2 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



The fatted calves are freely slain, 

The nation's true love telling ! 
Sweet incense, to allay their pain. 

Each rebel nose is smelling! 
To prove she cannot carry hate 

Beyond the bounds of reason, 
The nation opens every gate 

And kindly welcomes treason ! 

She shrewdly asks no sacrifice, 

But, graciously relenting, 
Proclaims the policy unwise 

To insist on much repenting; 
And so, to prove how very fair 

She would distribute favors, 
As three to one destroyers share 

Her honors with her savers ! 

The problem of the war has found 
This wonderful solution : 

That statesmen are the nearest sound 
Who led in revolution ; 



That those who in the foremost van 
Fought to obscure her glory 

Are just the men to wisely plan 
And shape her future story ! 

On every lip is found the sneer 

About played-out war-speeches ; 
They've grown as odious to hear 

As old-time Kansas " screeches "; 
The public voice pronounces ban 

Or girds its stinging cordon 
Of censures around Sheridan, 

But puts sweet faith in Gordon ! 

If aught were needed, this will show, 

Beyond ail doubt or cavil, 
I'hat 'tis the rebel chiefs who know 

The best way to unravel 
The snarls that hold the land in thrall- 

A secret worth inditing : 
" Let rebs in peace recover all 

They lost by foolish fighting." 



A SINNER'S PLEA. 



I did wrong, and the good world, soon finding 

My error, set up hue and cry; 
In vain flowed my tears hot and blinding, 

For mercy in vain did I sigh 1 

On each brow bitter hatred sat scowling; 

Every eye flashed me ruthless contempt ; 
Every voice seemed like Pliarisee howling, 

" Thank Ood, from such fault I'm exempt ! " 

And friends who to me were the dearest 
Were palsied at once by the cry ; 

.And love which I deemed the sincerest 
Was first from my bosom to fly. 

With taunting and jibing and sneering, 

The bright eartli was made like a hell — 

Not a shadow of kindness appearing 
To bridge o'er the ditch where I fell. 

So unlike others' faults was my error, 
So few had such weakness e'er shown. 



It seemed right the anathemas of terror 
Should over my poor soul be thrown ! 

So the good world mo\ ed on in its mission. 
To the duties engrossing it much. 

Keeping guard at the gates of Elysian, 

With its garments unstained by my touch. 

So the good world still rolls on its mission, 
Tho' the wheels it calls justice may press 

The life-blood from hearts whose contrition 
Is born of desjiair and distress ; 

Lending never a hand in its splendor 
To those who repentant might rise, 

While Charity, meek-eyed and tender. 
From its cold-hearted equity flies. 

So world, growing colder and colder 
While pretending lost souls to uplift. 

Cold glances, cold words, and cold shoulder, 
Is it strange that they scoff at your gift.' 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



303 



DREAMLAND. 



Into the summer sky listlessly gazing; 

Dreaming by daylight a beautiful dream ; 
Turreted castles from fleecy clouds raising, 

Where I betake me, a monarch supreme ; 
On the rapt soul no trace of a sorrow. 

Over the vision no shadows are flung, 
No gloomy fears of disaster to-morrow, 

Linger these glories of dreamland among ! 

Hashed is the wild din of life's busy clangor ; 

Quiet is brooding o'er earth, air, and sea; 
Life's dreary routine, work, restlessness, anger, 

Comes not to harass or disquiet me; 
Glorious to breathe the sweet breath of immortals. 

Freed of life's attributes, sorrow and pain ; — 
Ah ! they who enter these ideal portals. 

Never come back to the real again ! 

Oh ! the great world in its wonderful splendor. 
With these bright day-dreams, has naught to 
compare ; 

Nothing to give like the ecstasy tender, 

Which we rapt dreamers in fairyland share ; 



Fie ! on the hunt for a name and its glory; 

Fie ! on success and its answering bliss ; 
You take the years which shape heroic story, 

Give me the rapture of moments like this ! 

Here 'mong the clouds, if you choose to deride me. 

Fool-like I may be, but happy I sit ; 
Angels above me, below me, beside me. 

In the warm love-light of memory flit ; 
Scoff if you choose, me thus listlessly dreaming. 

Riding the sky in my chariot of gold ; — 
To your heart seared by life's every-day scheming. 

Never has been such enchantment unrolled ! 

Scoffer forsooth ! your sneer of derision, 

Proudly accepted I wear as a crown ; 
Scoffer forsooth ! when the joys of Elysian, 

Lavishly on my day-dreamings come down ; 
Scorn if you choose me with glance, lip and 
finger, 

Yet I must float down the beautiful stream; — 
Still 'mong its castles enchanted I linger. 

Still 'neath the blue sky delighted I dream ! 



TO MY SISTER. 



While I ramble to-day in the wildwood, 
I dream, as I ramble, a dream ; 

From the far-distant land of our childhood, 
Of sunshine and brightness a gleam ! 

When we sat at the feet of our mother. 
And heard the sweet stories she told ; 

Or hand in hand romped with each other. 
Not thinking that we could grow old ! 

When the earth, full of joy, was so pleasant. 
And sunshine our skies did illume; 

When storms were at most evanescent. 
And fleeting their darkness and gloom ! 

Ah! how well I remember the meadow, 
Oft crossed by our wandering feet. 

Where beneath the old butternut's shadow. 
We had fashioned a truant's retreat ; 

Or down the long lane idly racing. 

To the wood's pasture fragrant and cool. 



Picking berries or butterflies chasing, 
LTntrammeled by precept or rule ; 

Or strayed where the log made the crossing 
Of the creek, when the dull school was out; 

To catch chubs on our pin-hooks, while tossing 
Our lines like young Walton's, for trout ; 

And now, sister, ah ! am I dreaming.? 

Our girls, well, the youngest is ten ; 
While our boy's brains are restlessly teeming. 

With the aspirations of men ! 

Up life's toilsome ascent they have started. 
Full of earnest endeavor and hope ; 

Whilst we from its summit departed. 
Are far down the afternoon slope ! 

For us no more dreaming and rapture. 
Life's race we have won, or have lost ; 

No matter, 'tis too late to capture. 

Success, when the summit is crossed ! 



304 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGKAPJIJCAL DICTIONARY. 



Though we fill the air full of regretting, 
O'er this seeming ill-usage by Fate; 

Though she turns a deaf ear to our fretting, 
And whispers for comfort, too laie, — 

Still, as down to the depths of the valley, 
Our steps move reluctant and slow, 

Is it childish, to loiter and dally, 
Around a past memory, so ? 

Is the joy of life's business so real. 
That it is of true wisdom a sign, 

To love not these star-rays ideal 

That from heavens so distant still shine? 

Should age in its wise worldly scheming, 

The windows of memory bar, 
And shut out the radiance beaming 

On our hearts in such dreams from afar? 



Ah ! who is the ready-tongued scoffer, 
Dear sister, because we, forsooth ! 

Think this world has no solace to offer, 
To age like these glimpses of youth I 

Who shall cast the first stone at our folly, 
Because we delightedly cling. 

In moments of deep melancholy. 

To the fading remembrance of Spring ! 

That memory of brightness and gladness, 
Which comes like an angel to cheer; — 

Taking from us the darkness and sadness, 
Oft clouding our pilgrimage here ! 

So while I to-day in the wildwood. 
Idly ramble, dear sister, I dream 

Of the far-distant days of our childhood, 
And catch of their brightness, a gleam ! 



COLONEL TIMOTHY J. SHEEHAN, 

ALBERT LEA. 

TIMOTHY J. SHEEHAN, sheriff of Freeborn county since January, 1872, 
and one of the brave Minnesota officers who participated in the Sioux and 
southern wars, is a native of Ireland, a son of Jeremiah and Ann (McCarthy) 
Sheehan, and was born on the 21st of December, 1836. He was educated in 
the national schools ol his native country, being kept at his studies most of the 
time till he was fourteen, at which age he came to this countrj^ He learned a 
mechanic's trade at Glens Falls, New York; worked there till 1855, when he 
went to Dixon, Illinois; was employed one season there in a saw-mill, and in the 
autumn of 1856 settled in Albert Lea, here farming imtil the civil war broke out. 
In the autumn of 1861 Mr. Sheehan enlisted as a private in the 4th Minnesota 
Infantry, his company being stationed at Fort Snelling. On the 18th of the 
following F"ebruary he was commissioned, by Governor Ramsey, ist lieutenant 
of company C, 5th Minnesota Infantry, and on ihe 18th of June, 1862, was 
ordered with a detachment of fifty men to report at Yellow Medicine agency, 
for the purpose of " preserving order during the time of annuity payments." On 
the 4th of August fifteen himdred Sioux broke into the warehouse and seized the 
goods which were awaiting distribution. Lieutenant Sheehan, with twenty-five 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAFHICAL DICTIONARY. 305 

men, ordered the Indians to "fall back," under penalty of instant death if they 
failed to obey. His good judgment, coupled with decision and courage, thus 
prevented an immediate outbreak, — an outbreak, however, delayed only two 
weeks. Captain Marsh being killed at Redwood agency, the command of the 
company devolved on Lieutenant Sheehan ; Fort Ridgely being threatened, he 
marched to that point from Glencoe, a distance of forty miles, in nine hours, 
many of the men trotting with boots off, while such as could not keep up on foot 
were put on wagons drawn by mules. 

Fort Ridgely was then filled with five hundred refugees, — men, women and 
children, — and with one hundred and one men, for ten days from the i8th of 
August, the lieutenant gallantly defended them from the savages. On the i8th 
and 2 1st his men fought all day and all night. It was a desperate siege, and a 
period of awful suspense on the part of the inmates of the fort until relief came 
at the end of ten days. For his bravery on this occasion Lieutenant Sheehan 
received a captain's commission. 

After being in other severe engagements with the murderous .Sioux, in No- 
vember, 1862, Captain Sheehan accompanied his regiment to the south. It was 
in General .Sherman's corps, engaged in the siege of Vicksburg; was in General 
A. J. Smith's division, under General Thomas, at Nashville ; was subsequently at 
Spanish Fort and Mobile, and Captain Sheehan participated in these sieges and 
battles, being in fifteen or si.xteen engagements with his regiment, and, strange 
to say, never received a scar. 

At Nashville he commanded the color company, and received from the 
colonel of the regiment, William B. Gear, in his report, the following commenda- 
tion: "Captain T.J. Sheehan, commanding company C, color company, gallantly 
stood by the colors, and in the last charge on the 16th inst. (December) two 
color-bearers having been shot, he placed the colors in the hands of the third, 
a non-commissioned officer of his company, who planted them on the rebel in- 
trenchments." Such intrepidity characterized Captain Sheehan all through the 
"war. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on the ist of .September, 1865, 
having made a military record of which the state may be proud. Colonel Houston 
and others presented him with a gold badge, engraved as follows : " Presented to 
Lieutenant-Colonel T.J. Sheehan for services during the rebellion from October 
13, 1861, to September 3, 1865." On the badge is a list of the engagements in 
which he participated. It was a well-merited tribute to his bravery and daring. 



3o6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

On rcturniii!^f to Albert Lea, Colonel Sheehan was appointed deputy United 
States marshal by United States Marshal Augustus Armstrong, and in 1871 was 
elected to the; office of sheriff. In this position he has shown great activity, 
adroitness and expedition in arresting criminals of various kinds, and is a very 
popular county official. 

In politics, he was a Douglas democrat before the civil war, but has since 
acted with the rc|)nblican party, b(-ing an influential and efficient worker in its 
interests. 

lie was born and reared in the Catholic church ; is president of the board of 
trustees of the Catholic Society at Albert Lea, and a man of high rectitude of 
character. 

The wife of Colonel Sheehan was Miss Jennie Judge, a native of Ireland; 
they were married in November, 1S66, and have three boys, — Jeremiah, George 
and Edward. Colonel Sheehan lost both parents when he was two years old ; 
was early thrown upon his own resources, and is emphatically a self-made man. 
His success in life is owing wholly to his self-reliance, energy and perseverance. 



HORATIO HOULTON, 

EI.K RIVER. 

T\ IE pioneer merchants at PLlk River, the shiretcjwn of Sherburne county, was 
Horatio Houlton, who has been a resident of Minnesota since 1854. He 
hails from the " Pine Tree State," and was born in Houlton, Aroostook county, 
on the igth of August, 1834. The town was named for his grandfather, Joseph 
Houlton, to whom the .Stale of Massachusetts gave; a township, and whom she 
made a justice of tlie peace before Maine was set off and became a separate 
commonwealth, ami he was reappointed justice of the peace. The parents of 
Horatio w(;re .Samuel ami .Sarah ( Kendall) Houlton, wlio belonged to the farm- 
ing comniunity. He received such <ui education as could be secured in a district 
school during the winters, farming until twenty years old in his native state. 

In 1S54 Mr. Houlton started out to see some portion of the great northwest; 
came into Minnescjta, then a territory, and, after some; e.xplorations, in May of 
the next year located at Monticello, Wright county, taking up a claim ol one 
hundred and sixl)' acres and cultivating it two or three seasons. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 307 

In i860 and 1861 he was part-owner of a train drawing Hudson Bay goods 
from Saint Cloud, tliirty miles above Monticello, on the Mississippi river, to 
such a point on the Red River of the North as steamboats could reach, varying 
in high and low water. In 1862, during the Sioux war, he had a beef contract, 
which he held from the United States government for two seasons. 

In December, 1864, on the completion of the Saint Paul and Pacific railroad 
to Elk river, thirty miles north of Minneapolis, Mr. Houlton brought a stock of 
goods here, and for fourteen years has been the leading merchant in the place. 
When he came there were but two or three buildings completed, and whatever 
Elk River is to-day, he has heljjed make. To mercantile trade he added, some 
years ago, a saw-mill, which he built in connection with Thomas S. Nicker- 
son, and which Mr. Houlton is now running alone. He is a public-spirited, enter- 
prising man of the highest respectability. 

He has held a few township and county offices, such as it seemed necessary 
for him to accept in order to bear his share of such burdens, but it is evident 
that he covets none of the honors which come from that direction. He attends 
very closely to his business, and that is the secret of his success. 

He was formerly a republican, but is now quite independent in his political 
views, with " greenback " leaninsjfs. 

On the 27th of September, 1858, Miss Melissa J. Harvey, of Janesville, Wis- 
consin, became the wife of Mr. Houlton, and of seven children, the result of this 
union, five are living. Effie May, the eldest daughter, is a student at Janesville, 
Wisconsin ; and Willie Lawrence, Charles Henry, Nellie Louise and Kate Lilian, 
are being educated at home. 



HON. WILLIAM H. HOULTON, 

ELK RIVER. 

WILLIAM HENRY HOULTON, son of Samuel and Sarah (Kendall) 
Houlton, and late state .senator from Sherburne county, was born in 
Houlton, Maine, on the 29th of March, 1840. He was reared on a farm; re- 
ceived an ordinary common-school education ;' lost his mother when he was three 
years old, and in 1854 went with his father to Warren county, Illinois, and in 
May, 1856, came to Monticello, Wright county, Minnesota, farming there with 
his father till of age. 



3o8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In August, 1862, lu; c-nlisted as a private in company E, 8th Minnesota In- 
fantry, which regiment served awhile on the frontier against the bloodthirsty 
Sioux under General Sully, and then went to the south, being in the Nashville 
campaign of General Thomas against J-iood. Mr. Houlton served three years, 
being promoted to a non-commissioned office; was on duty every day during 
the period for which he enlisted, and was under fire several times, but never 
recei\ed a wound. 

Mr. Houlton returned to Monticello in August, 186^ ; was elected register of 
deeds in the autumn of that year; resigned the next year and removed to Elk 
River, here being in trade eight years in company with his elder brother, Horatio 
Houlton, elsewhere mentioned in this volume. During the last six years he has 
been in company with Mr. Edward P. Mills, in the manufacture of fiour and 
lumber. Since settling in Sherburne county Mr. Houlton served six years as 
county treasurer, and was a state senator in 1878. 

He has always been a republican, and is a member of the blue lodge in the 
Masonic fraternity. 

Mr. Houlton is a member and clerk of a Union church, which is composed of 
the several denominations. 

His wife was Miss Preddie Lewis, of Monticello, Minnesota. They were mar- 
ried on the 3d of March, 1870, and have one child, — Sam R., aged two years. 



I! 



GENERAL LUCIUS F. HUBBARD, 

RED WING. 

LUCIUS FREDERICK HUBBARD, one of the leading business men and 
■^ manufacturers of Goodhue county, Minnesota, and son of Charles Frederick 
and Margaret Van Valkenburgh Hubbard, was born in Tro)', New York, on the 
26th of January, 1836. His branch of the Hubbard family were early settlers in 
New Hampshire and Vermont. His father was sheriff of Rensselaer county. 
New York, when he died, the son being three years old. The next nine years 
he spent in Chester, Vermont, attending school when arrived at a suitable age. 
His time from twelve to sixteen years of age he gave to study, at the North 
Granville Academy, New York, after which he learned the tinner's trade, at 
Poultney, Vermont. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 311 

In 1853 young Hubbard came as far west as the city of Chicago; there 
worked four years at his trade, and in 1857 settled at Red Wing, establishing 
the Red Wing " Republican," and conducting it until the Union was threatened 
in 1 86 1. In December of that year he enlisted as a private in company A, 5th 
Minnesota Infantry, and in one short year, through sundry promotions, became 
colonel of the regiment. In this position he served till the i6th of December, 
1 864, when he was breveted brigadier-general, " for gallant and meritorious service 
in the battle of Nashville, Tennessee, on the 15th and i6th of December, 1864." 

General Hubbard was in more than twenty battles, including those of Farm- 
ington, Corinth, and siege of Vicksburg ; all those on the Red River expedition, 
under General A. J. Smith ; Nashville, and all those attending the taking of 
Mobile, etc.; received two or three slight wounds, hardly sufficient to disable 
him from leading his command, and was mustered out at Mobile, Alabama, in 
September, 1865. He commanded successively a company, regiment, brigade, 
and division of the army. 

General Hubbard returned to Red Wing, and in 1866 engaged in the grain 
trade, which he still follows, adding milling in 1870. He is of the firm of Hub- 
bard and Brown, orain dealers. Red Wint;; of Hubbard, Wells and Co., millers. 
Forest Mills, Goodhue county, and of the Mazeppa Mills Company, Wabasha 
county, the mills at those two places having an aggregate of fourteen run of 
stone, and making more than eighty thousand barrels of merchant Hour annually. 
As a business man, General Hubbard is a splendid success. 

General Hubbard was register of deeds for Goodhue county from 1858 to 
i860, and state senator from 1871 to 1875. During all the time that he was in 
the legislature he was chairman of the military committee, part of the time chair- 
man, also, of the soldiers' orphans' committee, and did valuable work on four or 
five other committees, regular and special. In the legislative halls, as in his 
own private labors, he was a worker, and looked well to the interests of the 
commonwealth. 

The General is an unwavering republican, and has never been anything else, 
casting his first vote for President in i860 for Abraham Lincoln. He is a mem- 
ber of the republican state central committee. He is a Royal Arch Mason. 

The wife of General Hubbard was Miss Amelia Thomas, of Red Wine, 
daughter of Charles Thomas, their marriage occurring on the 17th of May, 1868. 
They have three children. 



312 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

General llubbard was one of tin- ijroniincnt men engaged in building the 
Minnesota Midland railroad, the first narrow-gauge road in the state, antl which 
was completed from Wabasha to Zumbrota in the spring of 1878. He has also 
had a helping, liberal hand in other important enterprises, there being no interest 
of the city, count\' or state which he does not make his own. 



HON. JAMES M. McKELVY, 

SAfNT CIMVD. 

JAMES MEGOWAN McKEL\'V, judge of the seventh judicial district, is of 
Scotch-Irish descent, his grandfather being born in Scotland, and his father, 
James McKelvy, in the north of Ireland, the latter coming to this country in his 
youth. Our subject was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the 19th of April, 
1835. His father was a farmer, and at that time, forty-three years ago, his home 
was outside the city limits. The maiden name of his mother was Rosanna Swiss- 
helm, who was of German e.xtraction. 

Young McKelvy prepared for college in Pittsburgh ; entered Allegheny Col- 
lege in 1850, and graduated in course; read law with Thomas M. Marshall, ot 
Pittsburgh, and was there admitted to the bar in 1856. 

In the autumn of the ne.\t year Mr. McKelvy settled in Saint Cloud, and 
practiced here steadily until July, 1862, when he went into the army as first lieu- 
tenant of compan\ I, 7th Minnesota Infantry. During the first year he was pro- 
moted to captain ; was wounded at the battle of Nashville, on the i6th of 
December, 1864, and was in the hospital most of the time till March, 1865, when 
he resigned and returned to Saint Cloud, resuming the practice of his profession* 

In May, 1866, Captain McKelvy was appointed judge of the newly created 
seventh district, for a period of seven months. Before its e.xpiration he was 
elected for a period of seven years; was reelected in 1873, and is now serving 
his second long term. His natural abilities, together with his long experience, 
combine to make; him an able judge. He is quick of perception, and readily 
comprehends and determines legal points: is courteous to all parties, in and 
out of court, and has a peculiar faculty of leaving a favorable impression upon 
the minds of those with whom he comes professionally in contact. When not on 
the bench he interposes no judicial dignity between himself and his triends, and 
by reason of his good (jualities generally he is very popular wherever known. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 313 

Judge McKelvy was elected prosecuting attorney the year he settled hi Saint 
Cloud ; held that office until he went into the service, and on his return was 
again elected to the same office, resigning it to go on the bench. 

The politics of the Judge are republican, but he is not a strong partisan, lim- 
iting his duties in this line to the casting of his vote. 

His wife was Miss Margaret Garlington, of Saint Cloud. They were married 
on the 14th of April, 1861, and have six children. 



LEVI P. DODGE, M.D., 

FARMINGTON. 

LEVI PARKER DODGE, the first physician to settle in Earmington, is a 
-' descendant of an old Massachusetts family, some of whose members were 
pioneers in New Boston, New Hampshire. He was born at Sunapee, Sullivan 
county, that state, on the 25th of May, 1839, his parents being Mark and Eliza- 
beth (Wilson) Dodge. His mother died before he was a year old, and his father 
when he was nine years old. Thus early left an orphan, he was thrown entirely 
on his own resources, and took care of himself, working at farming and attending 
winter schools until eighteen, the last lour years at Beverly, Massachusetts. 

In 1857 he went to New London, New Hampshire, and spent four years in 
the academy, except in haying time and during the winter season, when he taught. 
He thus kept out of debt and secured a good academic education, reading medi- 
cine while teaching. 

Mr. Dodge was pursuing his studies at the New London Academy when the 
civil war burst on the land in the spring of 1861. Six months later, feeling that 
his country needed his services, he enlisted as a private in the 6th New Hamp- 
shire Infantry; was immediately detailed for duty in the medical department, and 
served nearly two years as hospital steward and assistant surgeon, combining 
medical studies with medical practice during this period. 

Returning to the north in the summer of 1863, he studied medicine a short 
time at Burlington, Vermont ; attended a course of lectures there in the medical 
department of the University ; also a course in the medical department of Dart- 
mouth College, New Hampshire, whence he graduated in November, 1863. 

Dr. Dodge practiced about a year and a half in Sutton, New Hampshire, and 



314 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

on tin- 19th of October, 1865, reached aiul settled at I'arminglon. Only one 
house here was then completed, two or three others being under way. The 
villatfe was orieinated as a station on the Iowa and Minnesota division of the 
Chica;^(), Milwaukee and Saint Paul railroad, and now has, perhaps, twelve hun- 
dred inhabitants. 

As the town grew, the practice of the Doctor increased, and for a dozen years 
or more he has been the leading physician in the western part of Dakota county. 
11 is standing is excellent, alike in the community and in the profession. He is 
president of the County Medical Society ; a member of the. State Medical Society, 
and has just been appointed a delegate to the annual meeting of the American 
Medical Association for 1S79, I^" be held in Atlanta. Georgia. 

The Doctor has a carefully selected medical library, of which he makes liberal 
use ; is a patron of some of the leading medical periodicals of the country, and is 
a studious, growing man. 

He has but little to do with politics, and calls himself" independent." In the 
Blue Lodge of the Masonic order he has held most of the offices. His religious 
connection is with the Baptists, and his moral character is high. 

On the 1st of October, 1865, Dr. Dodge was united in marriage, at Freder- 
icksburgh, Virginia, with Miss Henrietta C. Shackelford, of that place, and they 
have two children. 



HENRY BEHNKE, 

NEW I'LM. 

AMONG the few men now living in Brown county who saw New Ulni when it 
^ was only the site of a future town, is Henry Behnke, who was the first man 
to break ground in this county, and one of the first persons to engage in mercan- 
tile business in this city. He is a son of bVederic Behnke, a harness-maker by 
trade, who was living in Mecklenburg, Germany, wIk^u the son was born, on the 
28th of November, 1S32. Frederic Behnke is still living, his residence being in 
New Ulm. The mother of Henry was Sophia Dietz, who died in 1S67. He 
was educated in a gymnasium at Rostock ; in 1852 came to this country with his 
parents and one brother and two sisters; farmed a year and a half in the town of 
Hanover, Cook county, Illinois, and in 1854 the family came from Chicago with 
an ox team to Brown county, near New Ulm, here taking up land, which the subject 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 315 

of this sketch aided in cultivating- until 1861. Since that time he has been a 
trafficer in general merchandise, beginning on a small scale, and now having the 
largest store in his line of goods in the city. Like other merchants in these 
parts, he has felt the influence of grasshopper raids and other set-backs, but on 
the whole has been a successful operator. He sells usually about fifty thousand 
dollars' worth a year, and is prompt, reliable and trustworthy, having the fullest 
confidence of the people. 

A short time before Minnesota became a state. Governor Gorman appointed 
Mr. Behnke justice of the peace, and at one time he held simultaneously the 
ofifices of register of deeds, clerk ot the court, and clerk ot the county commis- 
sioners; the first two offices he held four years each. Since 1862 he has kept 
out of office, and has given his undivided time to his business, thus making it a 
success. 

In politics, Mr. Behnke is independent, with strongest leanings to the democ- 
racy. In 1861-65 he was a very firm Union man. In religious sentiment he is 
infidel. 

Mr. Behnke was married in July, 1857, to Miss Esther C. Tuttle, daughter of 
Albert Tuttle, an old settler in Brown county, and they have had eight children, 
seven of them still living. The eldest son, Frank, is a clerk in his father's store. 
The others, old enough, are being educated in the local schools. 



HON. HARRISON A. BILLINGS, 

SPRING VALLEr. 

HARRISON AIKEN BILLINGS, one of the original proprietors of Spring 
Valley, a member of the Minnesota constitutional convention, and for four- 
teen years clerk of the court tor Fillmore county, is a son of Daniel and Lucinda 
(Aiken) Billings, and was born in the town of Watertown, Franklin count)', Ver- 
mont, on the 25th of January, 1818. His grandfather, Nathan Billings, was one 
of the very early settlers on the La Moille river in that state. His maternal 
grandfather was- a revolutionary soldier. When Harrison was three years old 
the family immigrated to western New York, locating at first in the town of 
Ellery, and three or four years later settling on a farm at Ellington Center, both 
places being in Chautauqua county. The son clerked in a store more or less in 



;i6 THE UN /TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

youth ; at eighteen commenced teaching a winter school, and followed that pro- 
fession ten or eleven winters, attending an academy in Stark county, Ohio, and 
doing miscellaneous work the rest of each year. 

In 1S41 Mr. Billings commenced farming in Crawford county, Pennsylvania; 
in 1.S47 entered the law office of N. L. Chaffee and -S. P. Jones, at Jefferson, 
Ashtabula county ; was admitted to the bar at a term of the supreme court held 
at Chardon, Geauga county, in 185 i; practiced four \ears at Conneautville, Craw- 
ford county, Pennsylvania, and in June, 1S55, settled in Minnesota. He, with 
four other persons, bought the quarter-section of land on which the village of 
Spring \'allcy now stands, and laid- out the town. The otlier four persons were 
Isaac N. Cummings, Joseph B. Thayer, Nelson Burdick and Joseph M. Strong. 
Our subject l)uilt the second store in the place ; sold goods and dealt in real 
estate a few years; in 1861, being elected clerk of the court, removed to Preston, 
the county seat, and. with the exception of three years, held that office till 1S78. 
During this period, in 1862, he was appointed internal revenue assessor, and 
.served until 1871. He returned to Spring Valley in 1877, and latterly has been 
engaged in farming, having three hundred and fifty acres of land, largely im- 
proved, near town. He is a member of the council, and while at Preston was 
president one or two terms of a similar botly. 1 le is a very competent business- 
man. 

In politics, Mr. Billings was originally a free-soiler, of whig antecedents, and 

■ remainetl a free-soiler while there was any slave-soil. In 1857 he was the reinib- 

lican candidate for associate justice of the supreme court, but was defeated, the 

democrats then being in the majority in this state. He lacked, however, less 

than two hundred votes of being elected, running ahead oi his ticket. 

In the Masonic fraternity he is a .Sir Knight and a member of the council, 
and was at one jjeriod one of the five grand lecturers in the state, his held being 
southern Minnesota. 

His religious connection is with the Presbyterian church, and at sundry times, 
wlvilt' at Preston, held nearly all its offices. He is a man of strong convictions 
and of a positive nature — "true as steel." He is of a Jovial turn of mintl, sharp 
and willy, ami a good entertainer in the social circle. 

On the I St of January, 1852, Miss Charity F. Strong, of Flast Springfield, 
Erie county, Pennsylvania, was joined in marriage with Mr. Billings, and had 
two children : Frank M., now a student at Carlton College, Northfield, Minne- 



I 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 317 

sota, and Clara Louisa, who is with her father. Mrs. Billings died on the 25th 
of March, 1878. She was a member of the church where both of her children 
belono- ; was a noble christian worker, and a well-educated woman, with superior 
qualities of mind and heart. 



HON. NICHOLAS M. DONALDSON, 

OWATONNA. 

NICHOLAS MILLS DONALDSON, fourteen years on the bench in Min- 
nesota, was born at Cambridge, Washington county, New York, on the 
I 2th of November, 1809, his parents being James and Christy Mills Donaldson. 
His father was from the north of Ireland ; his mother from .Scotland. James 
Donaldson, a blacksmith by trade, died when Nicholas was four years old, and 
the latter lived on a farm with a maternal uncle until eighteen, when he became 
a clerk in a store at Argyle, in his native County, finishing meantime his educa- 
tion at the .Salem Academy. He taught school three winters in his native state, 
and one season in New Jersey, farming more or less at this period of his life. 

In 1840 Mr. Donaldson moved to Hayesville, Richland county, Ohio; taught 
school two years; read law at the same time with Thomas VV. Bartley, since a 
supreme judge of Ohio, and was admitted to practice in the autumn of 1843. 
Samuel J. Kirkwood, since governor of Iowa, and now United States senator from 
that state, was reading with Judge Bartley at the same time, and was admitted 
to practice a few months earlier in the same year. 

Mr. Donaldson opened an office in Mansfield, the seat of justice of Richland 
county, and when, in 1846, the county was divided, the eastern part being called 
Ashland, he removed to Loudonville, in the new county, and was elected prose- 
cuting attorney for the same. 

In 1849 Mr. Donaldson pushed westward to Waupun, Wisconsin, buying land 
adjoining the town and improving it, doing at the same time a very little legal 
business. During all the time he was in Wisconsin, except part of the first year, 
he was chairman of the board of supervisors, and was a member of the legisla- 
ture from 1 85 I to 1855. 

Early in the next year Mr. Donaldson settled in Owatonna ; in the autumn 
of 1857 was elected judge of the fifth judicial di'strict, and was reelected in 1864, 
each term for seven years. As a jurist, he was courteous to the bar, showed good 



3l8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

judgment ami coniinendable caution, and was honest in his decisions as in all the 
acts of his lite. 

Since leaving the bench Judge Donaldson has "taken the world easy," he 
seeming to think that this is the period of life when, if ever, he should "go a- 
fishlng." He is city justice, spending only a few hours each day in his office, and 
attending to his private business the rest of the time. 

In politics, the judge was a whig until 1854, when he aided in forming the 
republican party in Wisconsin, — the first state, we believe, to make such a politi- 
cal movement. 

He is living with his second wife, his first being Miss Jane Stewart, of Argyle, 
New York, this union taking place in May, 1834. They had two children, and 
she died on the 8th of February, 1863. Only one of the children, Margaret, the 
wif6 of Dr. I). S. Harsha, of .Owatonna, is living. His present wife was Miss Emily 
S. Strong, of Owatonna, their marriage dating January. iQ. 1865. She has two 
children, Mary Renwick and Elizabeth Strong. 

The Judge is a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of Owa- 
tonna; has a competency, and having rounded up his "three-score years and 
ten," can well aftbrd, in " the lean and slippered pantaloon," to let others do the 
fretting. 



BRUNO BEAUPRE, 

.SM/A'7' PACL. 

BRUNO BEAUPRE, who is at the head of the largest wholesale grocery 
house in Minnesota, is a native of Kingston, Province of Ontario, Canada, 
where he was born on the i6th of December, 1823. His grandfather, Peter 
Beauprc, was a surveyor under the Canadian government for many years, and 
his father, John D. Beaupre, learned the same business, but eventually became a 
master ship-biulder. The maiden name of Bruno's mother was .Soulange F~orten. 
Both parents were of French descent. The Beaupres settled below Montreal 
some time during the seventeenth century. 

When the subject of this sketch was fourteen years old the family moved to 
Oswego, New \'ork, where he received a common English education in the 
graded schools of that city. 

In 1853 Mr. Beaupre settled in Saint Paul, and has been a merchant here tor 



» 

THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 319 

twenty-five years, always in the grocery trade. At first he was in the firm of 
Temple and Beaupre, doing a wholesale and retail business. In 1862, on the 
death of George T. Temple, he formed a partnership with P. H. Kelly, the firm 
of Beaupre and Kelly continuing till 1875, when it was changed to McQuillan, 
Beaupre and Co. Since the ist of January, 1877, it has been Beaupre, Allen and 
Keogh. The house, under whatever firm name it has done business, has always 
had a good reputation, and is as well known, probably, as any house in the state ; 
it is a synonym for integrity, promptness and fair dealing. No man has given it 
more character than Mr. Beaupre. 

Since a resident of Minnesota he has lived a very busy yet quiet life; has 
had very little to do with politics, and if there is any pleasure or profit in office- 
holding, he has generously let his neighbors have the " lion's share." In fact, we 
believe he has never held a political office of any kind. He is a domestic man, 
quite contented to be the ruler of a small household. Prosperity has not spoiled 
him. He likes to see others comfortable as well as himself, and is a friend to 
the poor. 

Mr. Beaupre was married in August, 1855, to Miss Margaret Amelia Barn- 
ford, ot Kingston, Canada, and they have lost five children and have four living. 
Louise, the eldest daughter, is the wife of Philip Verplanck, of Saint Paul ; the 
others, Marie, Georgiana and PVank, are young and single. The family attend 
Saint Mary's Catholic Church. 



HON. AMOS COGGSWELL, 

OWATONNA. 

AMOS COGGSWELL, a member of the Minnesota constitutional conven- 
'- tion^ in 1857, and since that date a member of both houses of the state 
legislature, is a native of the Granite State, and was born at Boscawen, Merrimac 
county, on the 29th of September, 1825. His father, Francis Coggswell, is a 
lawyer, still living, his home being in Dakota Territory, and his age eighty-nine. 
The mother of Amos was Elizabeth Smith Coggswell. .She died in 1876, at 
eighty-four years of age. The Coggswells originally settled in Massachusetts, 
moving thence into New Hampshire. Amos Coggswell, grandfather of our sub- 
ject, was a colonel in the revolutionary war. The Coggswells and Wentworths, 
37 



320 TJJE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

of New Hampshire, are related, the subicct of this sketch being a cousin of Hon. 
[nhn Wentworth, of Chicago. 

In his youth Amos aided his father somewliat in his law office ; worked off and 
on at farmine • received an academic education at Gilmanton, in his native state ; 
tauo-ht school two winters in Salisbury and Boscawen ; read law with Franklin 
Pierce, since President of the United States, and was admitted to the bar at 
Concord, New Hampshire, in September, 1846, the day before he became of age. 

Mr. Cossfswell came immediately to the west; located at Woodstock, Mc- 
Henry county, Illinois, and practiced there steadily until 1853, when, at the re- 
quest of President Pierce, he spent two years at Washington, as e.xamincr of 
bounty-land claims in the pension office. 

Returning to Woodstock, Mr. Coggswell removed in the spring of 1856 to 
Steele county, Minnesota, ten miles from Owatonna ; took up a. claim in the 
town of Aurora, and has farmed there and had a law office in Owatonna since 
that date, living in town most of the time for the last ten years, and all for the 
last six. No old settler in Steele count}- is better known or more respected than 
Mr. Coggswell. He has a fine property here at the county seat, and wild lands 
in Minnesota and Dakota Territory, having been successful in all his operations. 
He is a shrewd, able lawyer. 

As already intimated, Mr. Coggswell was a member of the constitutional con- 
vention, and aided in framing the laws under which the people of this state now 
live. He was a member of the house of representatives, and its speaker in the 
session held in the winter of 1859-60, and was in the state senate in 1872, 1873, 
1874 and 1875. In the last named body he was on the judiciary and railroad 
committees, and took a leading part in the regulation of the railroads. He is a 
strong debater, and was a man of much influence in the legislature. 

In politics, Mr. Coggswell was originally a free-soil democrat ; voted for Stephen 
A. Douglas for President in i860, and has since acted with the democracy. He 
is a Chapter Mason. 

Mr. Coeeswell has had two wives, and lost both. The first was Miss Harriet 
Clark, of McHenry county, Illinois, chosen in 1848; she died in October, 1869, 
leaving three children, one son and two daughters: Heman has a family and 
is a farmer in Steele county, Minnesota, and Helen and Abby are single, living 
at home. His second wife was Mrs. Lucinda Dunning, of Owatonna, married 
in .September, 1873; ^'''^' '^'''^'^1 "^ consumption eighteen months afterward. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 321 

Mr. Coo-gswell has a pleasant home, dehghtfuUy situated on a rise of ground 
in the southern part of the city ; is in easy and comfortable circumstances, and 
lets the world do its own fretting. 



HON. CHARLES H. CONKEY, 

PRESTON. 

CHARLES HENRY CONKEY, merchant and miller, and one of the lead- 
ino- business men in Fillmore county, dates his birth at Beekmantown, 
Clinton county, New York, on the 3d of October, 1828. His father, Jonas Con- 
key, is of Scotch-Irish descent, the progenitor of the family in America coming 
over prior to the first war with the mother country. The maiden name of his 
mother was Fanny Barnes, a native of northern New York. One or two of her 
brothers were in the second war with the mother country. When Charles was 
sixteen years old the family immigrated to Illinois, and located near Elgin, Kane 
county, returning to New York three years later on account of the declining- 
health of his mother, who died soon afterward, at Beekmantown. 

In 1852 Mr. Conkey returned to the west; clerked three years at McGregor, 
Iowa, and then had an interest in the same store; sold goods in Decorah, Iowa, 
from 1857 to 1859, in company with W. F. Kimball, and then removed to Fill- 
more, Fillmore county, Minnesota, engaging in merchandise and milling. 

In the autumn of 1866 Mr. Conkey was elected auditor of Fillmore county; 
removed to Preston, the shire town, and held that office from March, 1867, to 
March, 1873; since then he has been in the mercantile and milling business, in 
company with two younger brothers, William P. and Lawrence M. Conkey, both 
enterprising men. The company of Conkey Brothers manufacture about fifteen 
thousand barrels of tlour annually, and do in their mill and store a business of 
one hundred thousand dollars. No firm in the county is in better repute, all its 
members being men of the strictest integrity. 

Mr. Conkey was a state senator in 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1877, and was chair- 
man of the committee on State University first two years, and of the committee 
on taxes and tax laws the last two, also one year of the committee on the Institu- 
tion for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. 

While a resident of Fillmore, Mr. Conkey held one or more town offices all 



32 2 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

the time, and has clone about the same thing since settling at Preston. He has 
been mayor the last two years. His executive talents and general business quali- 
fications are excellent. 

Mr. Conkey is a republican, of whig antecedents ; a blue-lodge Mason, and a 
scarlet-degree Odd-Fellow. 

His wife was Sarah C. Ripley, a native of Canada, living at the time of her 
marriage, on the 21st of September, 1859, at Decorah, Iowa. They have had 
seven children, and lost all but three, Harry M., Edward H. and Robert Lincoln. 



HON. SMITH ELLISON, 

TAVLOR'S FALLS. 

SMITH ELLISON, a resident of the .Saint Croix valley since 1844, was a 
son of Elijah Ellison, a farmer, belonging to an old Long Island family, and 
Abigail Smith, and was born in Marine, Madison county, Illinois, on the 15th of 
March, 1823. Elijah Ellison moved from the Atlantic coast in 1818, with several 
old sea captains, who all located in Madison county, settling a town and calling 
it Marine, on account of their previous calling. Young Smith did nothing but 
farm until of age, obtaining such education as lads ordinariK' get in rural district 
and in ordinary schools. 

Mr. Ellison left home in 1844; came directly to the Saint Croix valley, where 
parties from Illinois had started the town of Marine, twelve miles north of Still- 
water, and he worked there and at Osceola, and other places in the valley, until 
1849, when he went into the lumbering business for himself. This has been his 
occupation, directly or indirectly, for thirty years. In 1871 he added the mercan- 
tile trade, in company with Joseph A. Fairbain. Since 1872 his partner has been 
Lucas K. Slannard. 

Mr. Ellison has been a practical and lorlunate operator, and is interested in 
enterprises outside of Taylor's Falls. He has a quarter-interest in a saw-mill at 
south Stillwater, and part-interest in a tiouring-mill at Stillwater, and is a director 
and stockholder of the F^irst National Bank of .Stillwater. Besides his property 
in Taylor's Falls, he has about six thousand acres of pine lands and real estate 
at various points on the Saint Croix river and elsewhere. 

Mr. Ellison was a county commissioner eight or ten years, and chairman all 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 323 

but the first year ; was a member of the territorial legislature one term, and 
elected for another term, but the democratic governor, finding that the republi- 
cans had a majority of the members, declined to call a session of the legislature. 
Mr. Ellison is a republican, with whig antecedents, but is more of a business- 
man than politician. He is a cautious and straightforward operator, managing 
his business with great care and eminent success. His accumulations are the 
result of hard work and prudent management. 



HON. NATHAN P. COLBURN, 

PRESTON. 

NATHAN PIERCE COLBURN, son of Abel and Deborah (Phelps) Col- 
burn, was born in Hebron, Grafton county, New Hampshire, on the 22d of 
December, 1825. Abel Colburn was in the second war with England, being aide- 
de-camp to one of the generals ; and Samuel Phelps, maternal grandfather of 
Nathan, was in the first war with England. When our subject was eight years 
old he went to live with a cousin at Campton, New Hampshire, and four years 
later removed to the adjoining town of Plymouth, where he attended school about 
two years. At fifteen he accompanied his parents to Ouincy, Massachusetts, and 
the next year became an apprentice to George Badger, of Reading, at the cabinet- 
maker's trade, and worked at the business nearly twelve years, having, the latter 
part of this time, charge of a furniture manufactory in Boston. In 1854 ill health, 
resulting from close confinement in the shop, compelled him to abandon the busi- 
ness, and he was appointed deputy sheriff of Middlesex county, and served one 
year, reading law at the same time. 

In November, 1855, Mr. Colburn came to Fillmore county, Minnesota, with 
his family, consisting of a wife and one child. As early as 1843 hi-'' parents 
removed from Massachusetts to Loami, Sangamon county, Illinois, where his 
father died in 1850, and where his mother still resides, at the advanced age of 
eighty-three years. Joseph Colburn, an elder brother of Nathan, came to Minne- 
sota in February, 1855, and the two built a steam saw-mill at Waukokee, in the 
early part of 1856, — one of the first mills of the kind in Fillmore county. Joseph 
Colburn died in 1869, at Loami, Illinois. 

-The subject of this sketch resumed his law studies in the office of H. C. 



324 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Butler, of Cariinona, in this count)- ; read with liim about a year, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Preston, the county seat, in October, 1857. Here he has 
been in practice ever since, being, for several years, of the firm of Colburn and 
Wells, and latterly has been alone, having an excellent practice. He has also 
done something in real estate, never, however, to interfere with his legal busi- 
ness. He has a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, two or three miles 
from town, and other lands in the county. He is a very sound lawyer, and has a 
highly creditable standing in the bar of his judicial district. 

Mr. Colburn was a member of the constitutional convention in 1857, and was 
elected to the legislature in 1858, but no session was held the following year. He 
was a member of the house in 1867 and 1871, and chairman of the judiciary com- 
mittee both sessions, and was county attorney eight years, leaving the office in 
January, 1876. 

He was a democrat till the organization of the republican party ; was chair- 
man of the first meeting held in South Reading (now Wakefield), Massachu- 
setts, to organize the latter party there, and has never abandoned it. 

Early in lile Mr. Colburn had tjuite a taste for military matters ; at the age of 
twenty-two years was elected lieutenant of an independent compan)' in Reading, 
Massachusetts ; at twenty-four was promoted to major of the 4th regiment, and 
at twenty-five was elected colonel of the 7th Massachusetts, holding that position 
five years, and until his removal to the west. The adjutant-general's report of 
that state in these days shows that Colonel Colburn's regiment made an appear- 
ance second to none in the Baj^ State. 

When the civil war broke out in 1861 he was appointed major of the 2d Minne- 
sota Infantry, but not being able to close his business at once, without injury to 
his clients, declined the appointment. In August, 1862, when the .Sioux began 
their butcheries of the whites in Meeker, Brown and other counties, he raised, at 
the request of Governor Ramsey, one hundred and twenty men in two days. 
Mounted and armed with rifles, and with an abundance of ammunition, they 
pushed westward into the Blue Earth valley to protect the settlers and to pre- 
vent them from leaving the state, remaining there nearly two months, when they 
were relieved by the regular troops. The Colonel was paymaster in the army 
about one year, commencing in April, 1863, being obliged to resign on account 
of ill health. 

Colonel Colburn is a Master Mason. In religious sentiment, he is a Univer- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 325 

salist. His character is above reproach. While feeling a lively interest in the 
political affairs of the country, he has little relish for political contests as con- 
ducted at the present time, and seldom participates in them. 

He has a second wife. His first was Miss Mary Jane Eames, of South Read- 
ing (Wakefield), Massachusetts; they were married on the loth of April, 1850. 
She had four children, and died on the 9th of July, 1874. Her second child died 
in infancy, and Medora I., the elder daughter, at twenty-one, of consumption. 
Warren E., aged twenty-two, was educated in the graded school in Preston, and 
State University at Minneapolis. His health being impaired by too close appli- 
cation and confinement, he is at present engaged in farming. Mary Etta, aged 
twenty, is at home. She was educated in the graded school of Preston. The 
date of his second marriage is September 16, 1877, his wife being Mrs. Helen M. 
Tinkham, dauohter of Samuel Rich, of Batavia, New York. 

o 

Colonel Colburn heartily identifies himself with every local interest ; is quite 
as apt to suggest enterprises of importance, and to lead in them, as to follow, and 
is behind in nothing that will improve the social or material status of Preston or 
Fillmore county. 



COLONEL JAMES C EDSON, 

(iLENCOE. 

JAMES C. EDSON, a native of Otsego county. New York, was born at Edson's 
Corners, on the 25th of February, 1825. His father, Jacob Edson, was in early 
and middle life a merchant and potash manufacturer, and in later years a farmer, 
dying only six or seven years ago. The maiden name of his mother was Sophro- 
nia Bowen ; she died only a few years since. The subject of this notice received 
only a common-school education ; worked at farming and the millwright and 
joiner's trade till twenty years of age, in his native county; then went to Adams 
county, Wisconsin, and opened a farm at Plainville ; cultivated it a few seasons ; 
subsequently read law with J. Bowman, where Newport, near Kilburn City, then 
stood, being admitted to the bar in Adams county in 1855. 

In order to more thoroughly equip himself for legal practice, Mr. Edson 
attended the law school at Poughkeepsie, New York; there received his diploma 
In 1858; practiced two years at Binghamton, New York; in i860 came to Min- 
nesota; practiced one year at Garden City, Blue Earth county, and in August, 



326 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

1 86 1, settled at Glencoe. Civil war was then ragin*^ at the south, and the next 
month Mr. Edson went into the service as captain of company B, 4th Minnesota 
Infantry, and served about four years. He was promoted step by step until he 
became colonel, and was in command of the regiment most of . the time during 
the last two years. His regiment belonged to the army of the Tennessee, and 
participated in Sherman's march to the sea. Colonel Edson was in numerous 
skirmishes and fourteen or fifteen pitched battles, yet never received a wound. 
He was mustered out with the regiment in August, 1865. His military record is 
such as to do honor to himself ami the commonwealth of Minnesota. 

Since the war the Colonel has been in the practice of his profession at Glen- 
coe, being the leading and most successful attorney in McLeod countv. He has 
been county attorney, and is now (1878) a member of the Minnesota house of 
representatives. 

Colonel Edson was originally a whig, on the demise of that party joining the 
republican, to which he still belongs, he being an intiuential man in the party. 

His wife was Miss Sarah A. Richards, of Broome county. New York, their 
union taking place in .September, i860. They have had four children, and lost 
their third child in inlancy. 



JASON C. EASTON, 

ClIATFIELI). 

JASON CLARK EASTON, the most extensive banker and land-owner in 
Minnesota, is a native of Lewis county, New York, and was born in West 
Martinsburgh, on the 12th of May, 1823. His parents were Giles and Olive 
(Green) Easton. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were born in 
Hartford, Connecticut, where the family settled at an early period in colonial 
history. His grandfather, Giles Easton, senior, was an artisan in the revolu- 
tionary army. The Greens were from Rhode Island. 

The subject of this brief biography prepared for college at Lowville. in his 
native county, and entered Yale College in 1847, but his health failed and he 
left in the freshman year. On the 2d of February, 1848, he started, at Low- 
ville, the " Northern Journal," a whig newspaper, and conducted it most of the 
time for four or five years. In the spring of 1856 he came to Minnesota; set- 
tled at Chatfield, Fillmore county; opened a private bank, and is still conduct- 





^ 




^i^ — 2---«— -^ ^"^-'t't^ . 



^\.9^lrSSSaIl di Sff^JJSari'e^ JV JT" 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 329 

ing- it, operating- during all this time, very extensi\'ely in real estate. He now 
owns two banks, his original bank at Chatfield, and a private one at Lanesboro, 
and has an interest in five others, being of the firms of Smith, W'ilkins and 
Easton, Austin ; Farmer and Easton, Spring Valley ; Easton and Armstrong, 
Winnebago City ; Sprague and Easton, Caledonia ; Lovell and Easton, Grand 
Meadow; and First National Bank, Owatonna — all in Minnesota. 

He was for several years in the grain commission business, in Chicago and 
Milwaukee, and for two years bought grain at all stations on the Southern Min- 
nesota railroad, and subsequently became a director and the heaviest stock- 
holder. He is also president of the Southern Minnesota Railway Extension 
Company, a separate corporation, but auxiliary to the Southern Minnesota Rail- 
way Company, which is building" the road west of Winnebago City, through Mar- 
tin, Jackson, Nobles, Rock, Murray and Pipe Stone counties to the west line of 
the state, — to be extended, at no distant period, to the Missouri river, through 
Dakota Territory. 

Mr. Easton owns something like thirty small improved farms, which he rents, 
and a few near home which are cultivated under his own eye. He has some of 
the best stock — cattle, hogs and sheep — in southern Minnesota. An English- 
man who visited Fillmore county, and the home and some of the farms of Mr. 
Easton, in the autumn of 1878, thus wrote of what he saw, the description ap- 
pearing in the Saint Paul " Pioneer-Press" of the 28th of October of that year : 

To the north of Chatfield stretches a valley about a mile in breadth, shut in by lofty hills, cov- 
ered with dense forests, the Root river winding along broad meadows at their feet. A drive of half 
an hour brought us to Maplewood Farm, so named from the fact of the sugar maple growing there 
extensively. Some five hundred trees were, I was informed, "on tap," if I may use the expression. 
This strikingly beautiful estate, of between six and seven hundred acres in extent, lies on both sides 
of the valley. The river bottom is a vast meadow of three hundred acres, level as a bowling-green, 
laid down to tame grasses, through which the Root river winds a very devious course, forming here 
and there a pretty island. Overlooking this is the homestead, one range of farm buildings, a house 
which reminded me of an English shooting lodge — huge barns, two hundred feet in length, a dairy 
with all the latest modern conveniences, its milk troughs able to be flushed at any moment by the ice- 
cold water of a neighboring spring. From the sheep-folds, sloping gently to the west, you look upon a 
vast belt of forest, which stretches along this chain of valleys for more than twenty miles, and varying 
from one or two miles to six in depth. Behind the homestead are hills broken into knolls and hol- 
lows, which have the makings of a splendid sheep run, when the underbrushing now going on is com- 
pleted. Above these hills, and approached by a steep, winding road, stands, on a lofty plateau, the 
arable land of the farm, already turned over by the plough. Here and there on the surrounding hills 
were patches of open meadow just like the Alps of Switzerland and northern Italy. Some had been 
brought into cultivation, and fields of ripe yellow maize stood out in bold relief against the rich 



330 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

autumn tints of tlie encircling woods. Here I was shown a magnificent flock of sheep, the best I have 
yet seen in Minnesota, and where some interesting experiments in grading have been tried. It is the 
fashion in this country to cross ahiiost exclusively with the Cotswold, as best adapted to these north- 
ern winters. But in this flock, Lincoln and Leicester bucks have been introduced with great success, 
and it is intended to make the further experiment with Southdowns, from which my experience of 
that breed in England leads me to augur very favorable results. None are so highly prized with us 
as fine mutton sheep, and it often strikes me that in western sheep-farming, the growth of really fine 
table-mutton might be made as profitable as that of wool. Nothing could siiow more clearly how 
admirably adapted is this country for sheep-farming than the fact that the clip of this year in a flock 
of a thousand averaged eight pounds of unwashed wool. For a similar class of sheep in the ])rairie 
country where I reside, four is considered a fair clip. My own this year was five, and was extra 
heavv. The short fine herbage of the hills, the varied undergrowtli, the shelter of the deep woods, 
the entire absence of damp, the constant access to clear running water, convinced me, beyond a 
doubt, that while the prairie, with its rich pasturage, is unsurpassed for stock-raising, we must look 
to the more undulating and sheltered tracts of country, like Fillmore county, for any really successful 
sheep industry on a large scale. The farming land and stock duly inspected and admired, we drove 
across the river and entered the sombre depths of the forest primeval. I am used to going anywhere 
on the back of a horse, but to be driven across gulleys two or three feet deep, and jolted over luige 
fallen logs which obstructed the path, in a light top-buggy, is to me rather nervous work. Forests, 
such as nature made them, liave all but died out in England, or been transformed into cultivated 
parks. None but those who see them for the first time can realize all their romantic wildness and 
beauty. As we drove slowly along the narrow forest road, partridges whirred up under our horses' 
feet, and snipe and woodcock were seen in abundance. In winter the wild deer come down into the* 
valley from the deep woods above, and on still nights the watchful shepherd, in his hut of logs, can 
hear the limber wolves howl and make night hideous with their hungry cry. Time would fail me to 
describe other farms I visited. On one I saw a very interesting experiment in trout culture going on. 
The young fish, some five thousand in number, seemed healthy and lively enough in a large artificial 
fresli-water pond. I should think the Root river, which I am told never freezes, except in spots, 
would be well adapted for trout. In just such streams, and in a climate more inclement in winter, 
they are found in abundance in many parts of the Austrian Tyrol. 

I could not help wishing, as I looked at this charming country, with its healthful climate, its rich 
and fertile soil, its wonderful ca])abilities for mixed husbandry and stock-raising, not to be surpassed, 
even if equaled, in any part of England, that some Edison coidd reproduce its living picture for a 
moment at home. There are hundreds of young men of good family who must make a start in life 
with a few thousand pounds at their command. They are fond of country pursuits, are good sports- 
men, and have perhaps gained some insight into farming on the paternal acres. Emigration offers 
for them far the best and freest life in this world. To go to the Australian colonies requires, to do 
any good, a large capital, and is simply a banishment to some lone sheep station, hundreds of miles 
u}) the country, with no society but the hands on the run, or the occasional visit of some passing trav- 
eler. These western states have attracted crowds of the laboring classes, who have exchanged servitude 
and poverty for freedom and comfort. But the more remote and newly-settled parts, — such, for instance, 
as Martin and Jackson counties, — seem to me at present not so well adapted for the class of men with 
fair capital whom I refer to. But Fillmore county is equal, in every respect, to the finest agricultural 
districts at home, and it seems strange that the discovery has apparently not yet been made in Eng- 
land that, in the midst of high civilization, good society, railroad communication, easy reach of great 
social and mercantile centers like La Crosse, Saint Paul and Chicago, and but fourteen days from 
home, farms may be had for a few thousand dollars, which it would take a considerable fortune to 
purchase at home, and which are practically out of the reach of any but the rich. With a farm of 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 331 

five or six hundred acres, such as those I saw in the Root River valley, with a comfortable house and 
buildings, and capital lo farm properly — too often left out — an intelligent, educated man might 
make a handsome competence, and, at the same time, live like a prince. Why, the very privilege of 
shooting over such a forest as stretches to the west of this valley, stocked with deer and almost every 
variety of wild game, would be gladly rented in England at an annual cost of five to ten thousand 
dollars. Some I know in Scotland, not so good, have commanded the fabulous sum of fifteen thou- 
sand dollars a year. But then the exclusive British aristocrat always needs about ten stiuare miles of 
country to render him safe from the vulgar intrusion of the common herd. 

Besides the many improved farms which Mr. Easton owns, he has fifteen or 
twenty thousand acres of wild land in Minnesota, and a large amount in the 
Siou.K valley, Dakota Territory, being, we believe, the most extensive private 
land-owner not only in this state, but in that territory. 

Mr. Easton is a strong republican, and is deeply interested in the welfare of 
the party, but leaves the offices for those who love to hold them. 

The wife of Mr. Easton was Sarah J. Johnson, daughter of Abner A. John- 
son, of Deer River, Lewis county, New York. They were married on the 10th 
of September, 185 i, and have one child ot their own and two adopted children, 
the two latter being the children of a deceased brother, Giles C. Easton. Lucian 
Fred, their only child, is a graduate of the Shattuck Military School, Faribault, 
and is now a student in the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann 
Arbor. Hattie L., the elder of the adopted children, is a graduate of Saint 
Mary's Hall, Faribault, and is now at W^ellesley College, Massachusetts; and 
Abner J. is pursuing his studies at the Shattuck School. 



WILLIAM TUBBS, 

MONriCELLO. 

WILLIAM TUBBS, auditor of Wright county, and for twenty-two years a 
resident of Minnesota, is a native of Athens county, Ohio, and was born 
in the town of Lodi, on the 4th of August, 1830. His father, William Tubbs, 
senior, moved from Massachusetts to Marietta, Ohio, in 1804. The great-grand- 
father of our subject, on both sides, was in the first war with England, and his 
maternal grandfather, Asahel Cleaveland, was in the second. The maiden name 
of his mother was Laura Cleaveland, a descendant of the Massachusetts and 
Connecticut Cleavelands, whose members are so conspicuous in the biographical 
history of those states. Several of them participated in the grand struggle for 
freedom from the British voke. 



332 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



o 



William Tubbs, senior, was a farmer. Inil his son William diil not take to 
rural pursuits; he had a strong desire for knowledge, and gratified it, in a meas- 
ure, by pursuing an academic course of studies, the classics as well as English, at 
the Cool vi lie Seminar)', in his native state. At the age of nineteen he com- 
menced teaching at Head Quarters, Nicholas county, Kentucky, remaining there 
in that calling until 185 i, when he visited Chicago, and spent a season there as 
a clerk in a wholesale store. He then returned to Ohio, resumed teaching in his 
native town, and continued it there, and in Deerfield, Indiana, Moniga Springs, 
Saint Clair county, Missouri, and again in Kentucky until November, 1857, and 
In tlie spring of 1858 he came to Anoka county, Minnesota; spent a year in sur- 
veying and exploring the country for pine lands ; the next year resumed teaching 
at Theresa, Dodgfe count\', Wisconsin ; returned to Minnesota, and was elected 
auditor of Isanti county; resigned in three years — the middle of his second 
term ; located at Elk River, Sherburne county, in 1863, and opened a store; was 
elected auditor of the county the next year, and served two terms. 

In the spring of 1S70 Mr. Tubbs settled in Monticello, then the shire town of 
Wright county, and built the first flouring-mill ever erected in this place, operat- 
ing it till August, 1874, when he sold out. Three months later he was elected 
auditor of the county; was reelected in 1876, and his second term will expire in 
March, 1879. 

Isanti county corners on Sherburne, and Sherburne joins Wright; and begin- 
ning with Isanti county, ol which he was the first auditor, he made an e.xcellent 
record in all three of these counties. There is no better accountant in this part 
of the state, all his work being done with expedition as well as accurac)'. 

Mr. Tubbs has usually affiliated with the democratic, but voted for Mr. Lin- 
coln for President, and earnestly supported the government in all its war meas- 
ures. His popularity is seen in the fact that while nominated by the democratic 
party in all three of the counties mentioned, and all oi them are republican, he 
has been reelected in every county. The people oi Wright county, in selecting 
their officers, pay more regard to honesty and capability than to politics. 

Mr. Tubbs is a Master Mason, and has held the offices of junior and senior 
warden of the Monticello lodge. 

The wife of Mr. Tubbs was Miss Mary E. Staples, of Brunswick, Kanabec 
county, Minnesota, a native of Lee, Maine; married on the loth of February, 
1864. They have live children, three boys and two girls. She is a member of 



\ 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 333 

the Congregational church, is active in reHgious and benevolent movements, and 
striving to rear her children in accordance with the best promptings of a christian 
heart. 



HON. JACKSON TAYLOR, 

BUFFALO. 

JACKSON TAYLOR, one of the first three settlers on the shore of Buffalo 
lake, where the seat of justice of Wright county now stands, is a native of 
Mercer county, Kentucky, though his parents, John R. and Nancy (Gallagher) 
Taylor, moved to Wayne county, Illinois, when he was only three years old. 
He dates his birth January 9, 18 19. His grandfather, Henry Taylor, was 
from North Carolina, and the progenitor of the family in this country came 
from England, though at what period we cannot ascertain. His maternal grand- 
father, John Gallagher, was a native of Ireland. John R. Taylor, a private in 
the war of 181 2, was a farmer by occupation, but, being a man of a good business 
education and ability, was usually kept in some town or county office. Hence, 
though farming, he usually lived in some village, in order to facilitate the transac- 
tion of his official business. 

In the boyhood of Jackson, the schools in Wayne, Clay and Madison coun- 
ties, where the family lived, were scarce and poor, and he never went to school, 
in the aggregate, more than five or six months in his life. He, however, mastered 
the elementary branches, mainly out of school, and has never found any difficulty 
in transacting the business which fell to his lot. 

About 1836 the family removed from Upper Alton, Illinois, Madison county, 
to Rock Island county, a few miles east of Moline, residing there about ten years. 
In addition to farming at this period, Mr. Taylor did some work at Moline, he 
being one of the first two men who commenced building the dam there. 

From 1846 to 1856 Mr. Taylor was farming at Cedar Falls, Black Hawk 
county, Iowa ; in the summer of the latter year settled on the eastern shore of 
Buffalo lake, where the romantic little village of Buffalo, with its new thirty- 
thousand-dollar court-house, now stands. At that date one small log house, with 
a family in it, stood on the present site of the village, and about half an acre of 
land had been cleared in the dense forest which skirted the shores of the lake 
Mr. Taylor preempted one hundred and twenty acres, all timber land, and farm- 



334 ^^^ UNIIED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in!4 has since been his leading business. lie- now owns about two hundred and 
twenty acres, with fifty of it cleared and improved. He has kept an inn almost 
from the start here, and still "entertains strangers." With the exception of 
eighteen months, he has been postmaster since 1858, still having the office. 

He built a steam saw-mill in 1S66; it burned down in 1870, and he imme- 
diatel)' rebuilt it. 

Mr. Taylor has been justice of the peace at sundry times, — in all, five or six 
years, — and was a member of the legislature, representing Wright and Carver 
counties, in the session of 1859-60. 

He was a democrat until the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854, 
when Kansas and Nebraska received a territorial organization, with the question 
whether the\' should be slave or free to be determined by the voters of each ; 
since that bill passed he has acted in opposition to the democratic party. So far 
as we can learn, though a republican official, he is not a very active partisan. 

On the ]6th of February, 1840, Miss Roxy Agard, a native of New York 
State, and living at the time in Rock Island county, Illinois, was joined in wed- 
lock with Mr. Taylor, and although they have had no children of their own, they 
have adopted and raised five, and have recently taken a sixth. 

Mr. Taylor is a man of a kindly disposition ; often fi'eds the hungry, money 
or no mone)-, and is an excellent neighbor. His wife has been a mother to the 
motherless, the orphan's truest, best friend, and has her reward in the well-doing 
of those whom she has befriended. 



HON. GEORGE W. BATCHELDER, 

FARIBAULT. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON BATCHELDER was born at Danville, Cal- 
edonia county, Vermont, on the 18th of February, 18,26, his parents being 
|()hn Batchelder, a native of New Hampshire, and Alice Kettredge, a native of 
Massachusetts. The latter is still living in Caledonia county, being in her ninety- 
fifth year; the former died in 1845. 1'""^ grandfather of our subject, Gethro 
Batchelder, a revolutionary soldier, resided in his younger years at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, where he married Dorothy Mighals, settling in Danville, Ver- 
mont, in 1 797. He was one of the pioneers in that town, where he died nearly 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 335 

forty years ago, aged ninety-three. His wife died two years later, at the same 
age. This branch of the Batchelder family descended from Stephen Batchelder, 
who settled in Hampton, New Hampshire, in colonial times. The Boston literary 
correspondent of the Springfield (Massachusetts) " Republican " of the 4th of 
February, 1876, in commenting upon the Puritan ancestry of John G. Whittier, 
writes as follows : 

The Rev. Stephen Batchelder came with his family from Surrey, in England, and settled in Hamp- 
ton, New Hampshire, as early. as 163S, and was the first. minister of that town. The elder Whittiers, 
Husseys and Batchelders may best be compared with the small Scotch lairds, not rich in money, but 
in lands and the respect of their neighbors. They were the founders of towns, too, and the ancestors 
of thousands of people now living. . . . Daniel Webster, John G. Whittier and Col. W. B. Greene 
(of Boston) were related by Batchelder blood. Susannah Batchelder was the grandmother of Daniel 
Webster, from whom he inherited his dark Batchelder complexion. One of tlie daughters of Rev. 
Stephen Batchelder married a man named Sanborn, and is the ancestor of all of that name in this 
country. 

The subject of this sketch prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Danville, 
under Professor Charles G. Burnham ; entered the University of Vermont in the 
autumn of 1847, taking the regular classical course, and graduating in 185 1. He 
was honored with the degree of master of arts three years later. In taking this 
full course of literary studies he had gratified a taste, early imbibed, for books 
and intellectual pursuits. Though reared on a farm till si.xteen years old, he had 
little taste for such work, and, like many other boys, preferred fishing, hunting 
and reading to the more serious business of cultivating the hard soil of Vermont. 
In boyhood he gave some attention to music, and at twelve years of age could 
play the flute well. 

On leaving college, in order to liquidate some debts contracted while pursu- 
ing his education, Mr. Batchelder taught school for three years. He first took 
charge of the high school at Windsor, in his native state, where he also com- 
menced the study of law with Hon. Warren Currier. At the end of one year he 
removed to East Tennessee, and taught two more years at Tazewell and McMinn 
Academies, the latter being located at Rogersville. During this time he com- 
pleted his legal studies; was admitted to the bar of Hawkins county, Tennessee, 
and shortly afterward returned to Vermont. 

After a short visit among friends, in the summer of 1854 Mr. Batchelder came 
to the west and located in Janesville, Wisconsin ; practiced law there one year, 
then settled in Faribault, Minnesota, and formed a partnership with Hon. John 
M. Berry, now on the supreme bench of Minnesota. In the autumn of 1857 this 



336 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

firm was dissolved, and Hon. Thomas S. Buckham joined Mr. Batchelder in the 
practice of law, the partnership continuing to this time, the firm of Batchelder 
and Buckham being the oldest firm of lawyers in the state. 

In 1S64 Mr. Batchelder was the democratic candidate for judge of the fifth 
judicial district, and in 1868 was the candidate of his party for congress in the 
first district, and was defeated by Hon. Morton S. Wilkinson, the district being 
strongly republican. He was a state senator in 1872 and 1873. '" politics, he 
has always been a democrat. 

Mr. Batchelder is a Ro)al Arch Mason. When in college he was a member 
of the Sigma-Phi Society, and afterward liecame a member of the Phi-Beta-Kajjpa 
Society, at the University of Vermont. He has always attended the Congrega- 
tional church, and would be regarded as liberal in his relieious views. 

The wife of Mr. Batchelder was Miss Kate E. Davis, of Fond du Lac, Wiscon- 
sin, their marriage taking place on the 12th of July, 1858. They have four children, 
two sons and two daughters, — the younger daughter, Jennie, being adopted ; the 
other daughter, Georgia Louise, is a graduate of Saint Mary's Hall, Faribault, 
and a student in Saybrook Hall, Montreal, Canada. The sons, Charles S. and 
John D., are pursuing their studies in the graded schools of Faribault. 



HON. CHARLES A. GILMAN, 

SAINT CLUil). 

MOST of the Ciilmans in this country are descendants of Edward Oilman, 
who came to the United States from llingham, England, in 1638, and was 
one of the founders of Hingham, Massachusetts. He afterward moved to Exe- 
ter, New Hampshire, when that town was much larger than it now is, and included 
the present towns of Brentwood and Newmarket. He had three sons and two 
daughters li\ing when he came to the new world, the names of the sons being 
Edward, John and Moses. The faniil)- was wealth)', and these sons became pos- 
sessed of much real estate in the towns just mentioned. It is from John Oilman, 
"the New Hampshire Councilor of 1680," that the most noted members of the 
Oilman family descended. A writer in the Springfield (Massachusetts) " Repub- 
lican," in 1869, referring to Arthur Oilman's "Genealogy of the Oilman Family," 
then fresh from the press, remarked that " from the time of the first Councilor 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. l^^^-] 

Gilman, who was born in Hingham, England, in 1624, and settled in Exeter 
about 1648, the political, ecclesiastical, social and financial history of New Hamp- 
shire was more influenced by the Gilman family than by any other, for a century 
and a half at least." ..." The Gilmans, though seldom in the highest places for 
more than a century, came gradually to the control of affairs, which they man- 
aged with energy, good sense, and a business talent that was indispensable, from 
1775 to 1816, when Governor Gilman retired from public life." 

John Taylor Gilman, here spoken of, was governor from 1794 to 1805, and 
again from 18 13 to 1816, — a longer period, we believe, than any other man ever 
held that office in that state. He was also state treasurer nine years ; his father. 
Colonel Nicholas Gilman, had held the same office eight years, and another son 
of his, Colonel Nat. Gilman, the same period of time, the father and two sons 
being state treasurer for just a quarter of a century. A third son. Captain Nich- 
olas Gilman, was a member of the continental congress two years, of the consti- 
tutional convention of i ■]%■], of the first four federal congresses, and of the United 
.States senate for six years, the aggregate of congressional service being seven- 
teen years. His brother, the governor, already mentioned, preceded him in the 
continental congress, he being there from 1781 to 1783 and from 1789 to 1791, 
and served as a commissioner under Washington to settle the war accounts of 
the states. 

Joseph Gilman, a cousin of Nicholas Gilman, senior, and son of Rev. Nicholas 
Gilman, of Durham, New Hampshire, was chairman of the New Hampshire com- 
mittee of safety, during the " times which tried men's souls." After the revolu- 
tionary war he moved to Ohio, and became judge of the Northwestern Territory, 
under President Washington. 

It was a son of Councilor [ohn Gilman, John Gilman, junior, who, in 1727, 
with twenty-three other Gilmans, received a grant of the town of Gilmantown, 
which they named. "Among these twenty-four," says the Vi'riter already quoted, 
"we find one judge, two colonels, two doctors, one reverend, one major, one cap- 
tain and one lieutenant, — titles which serve to indicate the social standing of the 
Exeter Gilmans a century and a quarter ago." . . . "The Gilman name is now 
scattered over the whole country, and represented by conspicuous persons in 
Maine, Connecticut, New York, and many other states." Two or three of the 
family are conspicuous in the recent political history of Minnesota. In 1877 

three Gilmans vi^ere in the house of representatives of the state, and two in 1878. 
3v 



338 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Charles Andrew Oilman, a descendant of the Gilmanton l)ranch of the fain- 
il)-, anil the ninth generation from the progenitor of the famih' in this country, is 
a son of Charles and Kliza ( Page) Gilman, and was born in Gilmanton, New 
Hampshire, on the gth of February, 1833. He spent his youth on his father's 
farm and in securing an education, finishing his school studies at the famous old 
academy in his native town. He taught winter schools in Goffstown, Madbury, 
Lee and Gilmanton. 

In 1855 Mr. Gilman came to Minnesota, settling at Sauk Rapids, ilenton 
county, two miles, from his present home in Stearns county, both towns being- 
county seats. He remained in that [jlace about six years, doing something in 
the line of real estate, farming a little, and filling the offices of register of deeds 
and auditor oi the county. 

In 1 86 1 Mr. Gilman was appointed, by President Lincoln, receiver of the 
United States land office at Saint Cloud ; removed to this place ; held the office 
four years ; was then in the lumbering business a year or two ; was reappointed 
receiver by President Johnson in 1866 ; held the office one year, and then engaged 
in buying and selling, and also surveying and exploring, the latter being a busi- 
ness in which he has been engaged at sundry times for many years. 

In 1869 Mr. Gilman was appointed register ot the land office; resigned near 
the close of the next )'ear, and since that time has been dealing a little in lands, 
and since 1875 has been studying law, officiating, meantime, as city justice. He 
was admitted to the bar in December, 1876, but did not commence practice until 
the summer of 1878, when he was one of the managers for prosecuting in the 
impeachment trial of Judge Sherman Page. 

Mr. Gilman was a member of the state senate in 1868 and 1869, when his dis- 
trict comprised, geographically, more than half ot the state, and of the house in 
1875-1878, and reelected on the 5th of November, 1878, — in all, five consecutive 
sessions. What is singular, and highh' com])liiiientary to his popularity, though 
living in a strong democratic district, and an outspoken and firm republican, the 
fourth time he was elected he had no opposition. What is ecjually as singular, he 
was chosen speaker in 1878 without any opposition in the caucus or in the final 
balloting. 

Mr. Gilman was married on the ist of January, 1857, to Miss Hester Cronk, 
of .Sauk Rajjids.a native of the Province of Ontario, and she has been the mother 
of eleven children, onl)' si.\ of them now living. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 339 

It was largely through the influence ot Mr. Gilman, in the session of 1877, 
that the Brainard branch of the Saint Paul and Pacific railroad was built, Sauk 
Rapids being previously the northern terminus. At Brainard this road connects 
with the Northern Pacific railroad, Brainard being the point where the latter road 
crosses the Mississippi river. It is known as the Western railroad, and he is one 
of its directors. 

Mr. Gilman has all the best elements of the New England character, — unbend- 
ing integrity, unabating energy, and industry that never flags. He resides half a 
mile north of the center of the city, directly on the high bank of the Mississippi, 
with a commanding and delightful view of that great river, and has the best 
finished and most costly house in this part of the state. 



HON. SAMUEL L. CAMPBELL, 

WABASHA. 

SAMUEL LEWIS CAMPBELL, member of the house of representatives 
from Wabasha county, is a native of Chenango county. New York, and the 
youngest son of five children of Samuel and Maria Queen Campbell, and was 
born on the i6th of August, 1824. His grandfather, Ephraim Campbell, was from 
Scotland. His father was a colonel in the war of 1812, and a member of the New 
York legislature for twenty-seven years, a member of congress for one term, and 
was on the bench of the circuit court of New York for several years. 

The subject of this sketch was educated at the Clinton Liberal Institute, 
Oneida county; graduated iji 1848; farmed at Columbus in his native county 
until his father died in 1853, studying his father's law books at this period during 
the evenings and all the leisure time he could command. 

In 1855 Mr. Campbell came to Minnesota, and in the winter of 1855-56 
located at Wabasha, serving as clerk of the district court, and commenced the 
practice of law immediately. This profession he has followed since that date. 
He has a legal, logical mind, and in law cases "goes to the bottom of things." 

Mr. Campbell has been a member of the Minnesota legislature for five terms, 
and, although a democrat in a republican house, has been chairman of the judiciary 
committee four sessions, holding that position at this time, July, 1878. During 
the trial of Judge Sherman Page, of the district court in this year, he was chair- 



340 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

man of the board of managers, and managed the case with much adroitness and 
skill. 

Mr. Campbell was elected district attorne)' several years ai^o, and also mayor 
of the city of Wabasha, resigning Iioth oftices in a very short time, office-holding 
being distasteful to him. He has done some good work on the local school board, 
and in many ways has made himself a very useful citizen. 

During the civil war, he heartily supported the national administration, voting 
for Mr. Lincoln in 1864, but otherwise has usually acted with the democratic 
party, never taking interest enough, however, in politics to attend a caucus. 

Mr. Campbell is connected with the Masonic order, and was master of the 
W abasha lodge for live years immediately alter it was organized. 

The wife of Mr. Campbell was Miss Octavia Hayward, daughter of Dr. Levi 
Hayward, of Columbus, Chenangf) count}-, New York, she being a playmate ot his 
childhood. They have three children : Clarence L., the elder son, is managing a 
farm owned by his father, of six hundred and forty acres, in Martin county, Min- 
nesota ; Octavia Regina is at school in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and Darwin 
Hayward, a mere lad, is at home. 



IRVING TODD, 

HASTINGS. 

THE subject of this sketch is another illustration of what the printing-office, 
as an educator, can do for a young man. He completed his school educa- 
tion before he was sixteen years of age, depended upon the printer's case and the 
editor's room for the further prosecution of his studies, and is now one of the 
best informed men upon general topics ^ajld public affairs in Dakota county. 

He is a native of Lewisborough, Westchester county. New York, the eldest son 
of Joseph N. and Sarah A. ( Reynolds) Todd, and was born on the 2311 of July, 
1S41. The i)rogenitor of his branch of the family was the Rev. Abraham Todd_ 
a Presbyterian clergyman, who came from Scotland and settletl in Horse Neck, 
Connecticut, in the tirst half of the eighteenth century. A majority ot his de- 
scendants, now in the fifth generation, are settled in Westchester county, and 
mainly well-to-do farmers. Joseph N. Todd came to Wisconsin in May, 1857, 
settling at Prescott, nearl\- opposite Hastings, Minnesota, having purchased an 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 341 

interest in a saw-mill at that place. Irving, now in his sixteenth year, had, at 
this age, an irrepressible desire to become a printer, and during his second sum- 
mer in Prescott spent no inconsiderable time in the office of "The Transcript," 
where he soon acquired the knack of tilling a printer's stick. The next year he 
became an apprentice to the business in that office, and, after mastering tlie art 
of type-setting, worked sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, but form- 
ing only a small circle, Hudson, Osceola and Hastings being the points to which 
he radiated. 

The latter part of the summer of 1861, commencing immediately after the 
first battle of Bull Run, he spent in Hastings, working on a daily paper of very 
modest dimensions, its name being the Minnesota " Conserver." In the winter 
of 1861-2 he had editorial charge of the Prescott "Journal," and on the ist of 
September, 1862, the editors and proprietors of the Hudson " Star" being in the 
army, he assumed the management of that paper, remaining there until the 17th 
of November, 1862, when he bought the Minnesota " Conserver" of C. N.Whit- 
ney; on the 9th of November, 1866, consolidated it with the "Independent," 
published by Columbus Stebbins, under the name of the Hastings "Gazette," 
and the two gentlemen remained in partnership nearly twelve years. 

During a portion of the years 1867 and 1868 Mr. Todd was in Washington, 
District of Columbia, acting as assistant doorkeeper of the house of representatives. 

He was collector of internal revenue tor the second district of Minnesota from 
the 1st of January, 1872, to the ist of April, 1876. 

On the 4th of March, 1878, Mr. Todd purchased the interest of Mr. Stebbins 
in the " Gazette," and is now the sole proprietor. It is a neatly-printed, carefully- 
edited weekly, full of local news, and looking well to the general interests of the 
state. 

Mr. Todd has always been a republican ; was a delegate to the Baltimore con- 
vention in 1864, when Mr. Lincoln was renominated, and has participated in most 
of the republican county, district and state conventions of the past tifteen years. 

He is a Freemason, having been initiated in that order on the 22d of August, 
1863, and has since attained the thirty-second degree; has taken an active inter- 
est in Masonry and Masonic literature, and is the author of a digest which is 
being published by the Grand Lodge of the state. 

On the 13th of July, 1865, Miss Helen Lucas, of Hastings, was married to 
Mr. Todd, and they have two children, Irving, twelve, and Louise, eight years old. 



342 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

He has one of the best private Hbraries in the state, including a complete set 
of the house and senate journals, "Smithsonian Reports," the "Atlantic Monthly," 
etc., and particularly abundant in pamphlets and works pertaining to Minnesota. 
A large proportion of his working hours is here spent in editorial and other lit- 
erary pursuits. 



HON. DANIEL CAMERON, 

LA CRESCENT. 

DANIEL CAMERON, a pioneer at La Crescent, Houston county, is of full 
Scotch blood, his parents, Daniel and jennett (McVean) Cameron, being 
born in the old country, and coining to the United States before they were mar- 
ried. They settled in [ohnstown. New York, removing, after their union, to Deer- 
held, Oneida county, where the subject of this sketch was born, on the 2d of 
April, 1825. There the father cleared a farm in the dense forest, and reared six 
children in habits of industry and frugality. Daniel was the youngest child. He 
received a thorough academic education at the Whitestown Seminary and Fair- 
held Academy, and worked with his father until he had arrived at his majority. 

\\\ 1846 Mr. Cameron came to La Crosse, Wisconsin, his eldest brother, Peter 
Cameron, having preceded him four or five year.s. This brother was one of the 
first settlers in that town, and was in the fur trade with the Indians for several 
years. In this trade our subject spent two j'ears aiding his brother; visited 
.Saint Paul in 1848, and there, in the May of that year, voted for the adoption of 
the state constitution of Wisconsin ; soon afterward returned to Oneida county, 
purchased the old homestead of his father, and remained on it till 1855. 

That year his brother Peter died, and he returned to La Crosse to look after 
the interests of his brother, who had i)roperty also in La Crescent. Here Daniel 
Cameron located, spending a winter now and then, years ago, at the east, selling 
the old homestead a lew years ago. 

Mr. Cameron has continued to farm up to the present time, having between 
three and tour humlred acres of land near La Crescent, and some wild lands in 
other parts ol the state. He has also considerable property in La Crosse ; has 
been for many years a careful and successful operator in real estate on both sides 
of the Mississippi river, and is in very comfortable circumstances. 

Mr. Cameron was the first supervisor of the town of La Crescent, on the 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 343 

organization of the state, representing this town in the county board ; was a 
member of the state senate in 1864 and 1S65, and aided as a legislator in o-etting 
the bill through for rechartering the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company, 
under which charter the road was built and is now operated. He is a man of a 
good deal of influence and business talent. 

Mr. Cameron was a whig in early life, and later a republican ; in 1864 was a 
delegate-at-large to the convention which renominated President Lincoln ; was 
collector of internal revenue a short time under President Johnson, and is now a 
fish commissioner for the first congressional district, under appointment of Gov- 
ernor Pillsbury. Latterly Mr. Cameron has been quite independent in his polit- 
ical views, voting for men whom he regards as most fit for office, without refer- 
ence to party name. 

Mr. Cameron was reared as a Presbyterian, and adheres to the faith of his 
forefathers. His standing in society is irreproachable. 



HON. THOMAS B. CLEMENT, 

FARIBAULT. 

THOMAS BURR CLEMENT, senator from Rice county, is a son of Fred- 
eric and Olive Mallory Clement, and was born in Manlius, Onondaga county. 
New York, on the 19th of June, 1834. His paternal ancestors were early settlers 
in Dutchess county, New York, his great-grandfather being a member of the 
continental army, who was taken and held captive for some time on a British 
prison-ship. 

Thomas lived on a farm till sixteen years old, with such education as a dis- 
trict school furnished ; commenced business as a clerk in the store of his elder 
brother, Stephen M. Clement, at Fredonia, in western New York ; went into trade 
there for himself at nineteen years of age; removed to Faribault in January, 1864. 
Here he traded four years ; organized the First National Bank of Faribault in 
r868; was made its president, and still holds that position. It is regarded as 
one of the soundest institutions of the kind in the Cannon valley. 

Mr. Clement was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in 187s, 
mayor of the city in 1877, and a member of the state senate in 1878. Durino- 
the first session that he attended he was chairman of the committee on insurance, 



344 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

and on the committees on tmance, and banks and banking. He makes a wise 
and prudent legislator. He is one of the directors of the institution for educating 
the deaf and tlumi) and the blind, located at Faribault, and has held other local 
offices of trust and responsibility, being at one- time chairman of the board of 
county commissioners. 

He is a republican, but not a strong party man. Blind zeal of any kind never 
led him an inch. He is wedded to busint^ss much more than to politics, and 
office se(;ks him or he would never be found in official positions, either in the 
city or out of it;, yet he is a public-spirited man. one of the leaders in local 
enterprises, — proud of his adopted home, glorying in her progress and prospects, 
and shirking no responsibility which his fellow-citizens insist on his assuming. 
He is a solid man in business and moral as well as financial standing. 

Mr. Clement was first married in May, 1856, his wife being Miss Emma John- 
son, of PVedonia, New York; she died in 1865, leaving one child. His present 
wife was Miss Ellen F.Johnson, sister of his tirst wife, chosen in 186"; he has 
two children bv her. 



HON. JOHN L. MERRIAM, 

SAINT PAUL. 

JOHN L. MERRIAM, two years speaker of the Minnesota house of repre- 
sentatives, and one ot the most energetic business-men in Saint Paul, was 
born in the town of Essex, Essex county. New York, on the 6th of Fcliruary, 
1825. His father, W'illiam S. Merriam, was an iron manufacturer in Essex, dying 
in May, 1854. The Merriams were early settlers in Massachusetts. The great- 
great-grandfather ot our subject aided in gaining the independence ot the colonies. 
The mother of John L. was Jane Ismon, who sprang from a New Jersey family. 

To the ordinary knowledge gained in a district school young Merriam added 
that of two years' attendance in academies at Westport and E.ssex, in his native 
county. Early in lite he exhibited business tact and abilit\' of no common char- 
acter, and engaged in the iron trade when cjuite young, following it for several 
years, his operations becoming varied and somewhat extensive. 

In 1857 he was elected treasurer of Essex county, served two years, and in 
October, i860, moved to .Saint Paul, his family following a year later. 




>? '^ 



y^L 



^O 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 347 

On settling in Minnesota, Mr. Merriam became a partner of J. C. Burbank 
and R. Blakeley in the stage and express business, and at the same time engaged 
with J. C. and H. C. Burbank and A. H. Wikler in the forwarding and commis- 
sion business, and In wholesale merchandising in Saint Paul and retail at Saint 
Cloud. 

When the .Saint Paul Foundry and Manufacturing Company was formed, he 
became a stockholder, and for years has been engaged in making all kinds of 
heavy machinery, such as engines, car wheels, etc. 

When the First National Bank of .Saint Paul was incorporated, Mr. Merriam 
became a stockholder, and now holds the same connection with the Merchants' 
National Bank of this city. He has also had considerable to do with railroad 
enterprises; was one of the originators of the -Saint Paul and Sioux City railroad, 
and is vice-president of the company; is also a director of the Sioux City and 
Saint Paul Railroad Company; the .Saint Paul, Stillwater and Taylor's Falls 
company, and vice-president of the Worthington and Sioux Falls Railroad Com- 
pany. 

His heart and his best energies are promptly enlisted in any enterprise that 
tends to develop the wealth of the state and increase the growth and prosperity 
of his adopted home. 

Mr. Merriam was a member of the legislature in 1S71 and 1S72, being a re- 
pu.l)lican, and elected in a strongly democratic district, thus indicating his great 
popularity. What is unusual, he was elected speaker the hrst session, and he did 
so well, though fresh at the business of presiding over a legislative body, that he 
was reelected, making a popular presiding officer, being courteous, prompt and a 
good business dispatcher. 

Mr. Merriam has been a republican since the demise of the old whig party, 
in which he was reared. He was a delegate in 1876 to the national convention 
which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler. Mr. Merriam 
is somewhat active and influential in his party. 

He is a. Knight Templar in the Masonic order; the junior warden in Saint 
Paul Episcopal Church, and a man of very pure character. 

Mr. Merriam was first married in January, 1S48, to Miss Mahala K. De Lano, 
of Westport, New York. She died in February, 1857, leaving one son, William 
R. Merriam, now cashier of the Merchants' National Bank, Saint Paul. Mr. 
Merriam's present wile was Miss Helen Marion Wilder, of Lewis, Essex county, 

4° 



348 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

New York, and a sister of Amherst H. Wilder, of Saint Paul; married in No- 
vember, 1858. She has had six children, four yet living, — Jennie E., John W., 
Robert H. and Alanson Wilder. 



J 



JAMES M. COLE, M.D., 

WINONA. 

AMES MONROE COLE, the oldest physician in Winona, located here two 
years after the first squatter, and when there were not more than twenty-five 
families in the place. He has seen it grow from a few shanties and one-story 
frame houses, without church or school-house, to a city of twelve thousand inhab- 
itants, with fifteen or twenty houses of worship, three large brick buildings for 
<-Taded schools, and one of the best normal-school buildings west of the Missis- 
sippi river. Dr. Cole early became a member of the city school board ; identified 
himself at once with public enterprises tending to advance in any way the inter- 
ests of the place, and had from the start bright hopes of the future of his adopted 
home. Those hopes have not been blasted or disappointed. 

Dr. Cole belongs to an old Connecticut family, his grandfather, John Cole, 
moving thence into Montgomery county, and later to Onondaga county, New 
York. The parents of the Doctor, Moses and Sophia Clink Cole, were living at 
Fayetteville, in that county, when the son was born, on the 4th of February, 1824 
his father being a judge of sessions and Justice of the peace for several years. He 
received an academic education in his native village; at sixteen years ol age com- 
menced aiding his father, who was a builder and contractor in some public works; 
in the summer of 1S43 visited Chicago, worked on the harbor improvements, and 
the next winter taught a district school in Du Page county, thirty-five miles west 
of Chicago. The next spring he returned to New York, read medicine with Dr. 
Horace Seaman, of Millport, Chemung count)-, teaching one more winter; at- 
tended lectures at the Geneva College, antl finished his medical education in 
1846. 

Dr. Cole i)racticed about two years in company with his preceptor, at Mill- 
port, six years at Waverly, Tioga county, in the same state, and in June, 1854, 
settled at Winona, following his profession constantly from that date, except at 
short periods when in the service of the state. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 349 

He. has been city physician and county physician ; was a member of the state 
legislature in 1877 and 1878; has held a few offices in the municipality of Winona, 
and in all positions has proved himself a trustworthy servant of the people. 

Dr. Cole has acted uniformly with the democratic party, being formerly of the 
Douelas wingr and has been a Freemason and Odd-Fellow since a resident of this 
state. He was the first noble grand of the Odd-Fellows' lodgre at Winona; has 
taken the thirty-second degree in Scottish-rite Masonry, and was at one time 
grand commander of the Knights Templar of Minnesota. 

At an early day Dr. Cole was familiar with every Indian trail in southeastern 
Minnesota, and found many of his patients by the name of the trail. People, 
however poor, could and still can count on his prompt and careful attention. 

On the 17th of March, 1847, Miss Mary Wheeler, of Chemung county. New 
York, became the wife of Dr. Cole, and of nine children, whom they have had, 
six are still living, all in Winona. The two eldest, George M. and Alice, are 
married; the former is a carriage trimmer, the latter is the wife of W. H. St. 
John, jeweler. The other children are James B., William A., Jennie and Harry 
J., most of them graduates of the Winona high school. 



HON. IGNATIUS DONNELLY, 

NININGER. 

IGNATIUS DONNELLY, for four years lieutenant-governor of Minnesota, 
for six years a member of congress, and for the last five years a member of 
the state senate from Dakota county, is of Irish descent, his progenitor in this 
country coming over from Tyrone county, Ireland, about 1817, and settling in 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The subject of this sketch is a son of Dr. Philip C. 
and Catharine (Gavin) Donnelly, and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 
the 3d of November, 183 1. He was educated in the graded schools and high 
school of his native city; graduated from the latter in 1849 ; was made master of 
arts three years later; read law with the celebrated Benjamin Harris Brewster; 
was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1852 ; practiced there until 1856, and 
then came to Minnesota and settled at Nininger, Dakota county, where he pur- 
chased from time to time nearly one thousand acres of wild lands and opened a 
farm. 



350 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Donnelly was elected lieutenant-governor in 1859, when only twenty eight 
years old; was reelected in 1861, and served tour years. In 1S62 he was elected 
to congress from the second district, and was twice reelected, serving in the 
thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth and thirt\-ninth congresses. While in congress he 
championed the cause of education, and was the first to advocate the establish- 
ment of the department of education, now a permanent part of the general gov- 
ernment. He was also the first to advocate in congress the necessity of laws 
to encourage the raising of trees and groves upon the [niblic lands, antl was 
much ridiculed at the time for so doing, but events have justified his foresight. 
He also sought to amend the laws as to railroad land-grants, so as to nnpiire the 
huuls to be sold in a reasonable period, and at low prices. 

While absent from congress, in the State of New Hampshire, making speeches 
for the republican party, he was made the subject of a violent attack in the Saint 
Paul " Press," by Elihu B. Washburne, then a member of congress fr(Mn Illinois. 
On his return, Mr. Donnelly replied to Mr. Washburne on the floor of the house, 
in a speech that has become historical. He fully exculpated himsell fi-om the 
charges [ireferretl by Mr. Washburne, and then assailed the record and character 
of his traduccr. 

In 1868 Mr. Donnelly was a candidate for congress for the fourth time, but 
was defeated by lion. Eugene M. Wilson, democrat, through the machinations ol 
the Washburne family, who hired General C. C. Andrews to run as a bolting 
candidate against him, and drew off enough of the Scandinavian republican vote 
to give the district to the democracy. Andrews was rewarded by being appointed, 
through the instrumentality of Elihu B. Washburne, minister to Stockholm. 

Since first entering congress, Mr. Donnelly has entirely abandoned the legal 
practice, and is now devoting himself to farming and journalism. He has several 
farms in Dakota county, and in 1875 he purchased three thousand acres ot land 
from the .Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad Company, situated close to " Donnelly 
.Station," in .Stevens county, in the western part ot the state, where he has about 
four hundred acres under cultivation. He is one of the large farmers oi Minnesota. 

On the i6th of July, 1874, he started the "Anti-Monopolist," an independent 
weekly paper, the circulation of which ran u[) to more than twelve thousand 
copies in a few months. Its circulation is probabl)' the largest of an\- weekly 
gazette in the state. It is conducted with great ability, and wields a powerful 
influence. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 351 

Mr. Donnelly was married in Philadelphia, on the loth of September, 1S55, 
to Miss Catharine McCaffrey, of that city, and they have had four children, all 
yet livino- but the youngest child. 



HON. JAMES E. CHILD, 

WASECA. 

TAMES ERWIN CHILD, editor and proprietor of the Minnesota " Radi- 
J cal," and an early settler in the Territory ot Minnesota, is a son of Zabina 
and Orrilla (Rice) Child, and was born in Jefferson county, New York, on the 
igth of r^ecember, 1833. His grandfather, Daniel Child, moved into .Saint Law- 
rence coimty irom Vermont when northern New York was very sparsely set- 
tled. The Rices were early settlers in Jefferson county. The father of Orrilla 
Rice was a revolutionary soldier. Zabina Child moved with his family to Lake 
county, Ohio, when James was about eleven years old, and two or three years 
later to Dodge county, Wisconsin, remaining there about seven years. He was 
a carpenter and joiner by trade, which he worked at himself, but purchased land 
for the sons to improve. By the time he was eighteen years old James had fitted 
himself to teach, and for two or three winters thus devoted his time. He went 
from Dodge to Outagamie county when about twenty, and in 1855 came into the 
Territor\- of Minnesota, and located at Wilton, then Blue Earth, now Waseca, 
county. There he farmed awhile, read law and was admitted to the bar in 1862. 
The next year he became the editor of the " Wilton News"; purchased it a year 
or two later; conducted it there until 1868, when, on the completion of the 
Winona and Saint Peter railroad to Waseca, he removed to this place ; changed 
the name of his paper to the " Waseca News," and in January, 1874, called it by 
its present name. It is a general newspaper, thoroughly devoted to the interests 
ot the family, with prohibition as its leading feature. This question Mr. Child 
discusses with much earnestness and ability ; at the same time he devotes a lib- 
eral space to county and general news, and thus makes a popular paper. 

Mr. Child has never wholly abandoned the law, and latterly has paid consid- 
erable attention to it. 

.Since locating in Waseca county he has held a variety of county, legislative 
and other offices, faithfully discharging his duties in all of them. Several years 



352 THR UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

aojo he was county attorney two terms; was afterward judge of probate one 
term; was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in 1861 and 
1874; of the state senate in 1872; was county superintendent of schools one 
term (1868); was employed to take the census of half the county in 1870, and 
was deputy United States marshal during part of the time that the rebellion was 
in progress. He is one of the best known journalists in the stale, and respected 
for his sincerity and his rectitude of purpose, as well as for his talents and 
uprightness of character. 

In his younger years Mr. Child was an anti-slavery man ; joined the republi- 
can party on its formation, and still belongs to it, witli prohibition attached. He 
is a positive man, outspoken and fearless in advocating what he believes to be 
right. He is a Master Mason. 

On the iQth of April, 1856, Miss Justina Krassin, of Saint Mary, Waseca 
county, became the wife of Mr. Child, and they have had eight children and 
buried two of them. Walter, the eldest son, is foreman in his father's office, and 
the seconil son, S. Melvin, is opening a farm in Jackson county, Minnesota. The 
rest of the children are at home. Annie E. is a graduate of the Norman School 
at Mankato, antl a teacher. The rest are i^ursuing tlieir studies at home. 



HON. LIBERTY HALL, 

GLENCOE. 

LIBERTY HALL is a son of Jeremiah and Sarah (Knight) Hall, and dates 
■^ his birth at Peru, Oxford county, Maine, on the 27th of Jul)-, 1826. His 
grandfather Liberty Hall, for whom he was namc-d, and who was a soldier in the 
second war with England, had nine children, all sons, and died, together with his 
wife, when ])oth were about forty \-ears old, leaving their sons a legacy of a robust 
constitution and a good stock of virtuous principles. They were all l)orn in 
Readfield, Kennebec county, Maine, grew to a goodly height, and lived to old 
age, — two of them, including Jeremiah (now seventy-eight), yet living. All but 
one exceeded six feet in height, and their aggregate height was fifty-six feet. 
Three of them were ministers, four mechanics and two farmers, Jeremiah being, 
in fact, both mechanic and farmer. 

The subject of this brief memoir was reared on the farm until eighteen years 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 353 

of aoe, receivine, meanwhile, an academic education at Monmouth, in his native 
state. He taught school during the winter months from eighteen to twenty-one 
years of age, doing different kinds of work the rest of the year; then traveled 
four years for Dr. Colvin Cutter, the famous writer on physiology and hygiene, 
and subsequently twenty-five years for the great publishing house of D. Appleton 
and Co. During that long period of a quarter of a century he was traveling- 
most of the time, visiting nearly every state in the Union east of the Mississippi, 
and two or three west of it. His home, during the last Fifteen of those years, was 
at Rochester, New York, where he served several years on the school board, of 
which he was president one term. 

In 1866 Mr. Hall came to Minnesota to die. He has lost four sisters by con- 
sumption ; his own lungs were affected, and he was growing weaker from year to 
year. On reaching Glencoe he purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, 
cultivated it four seasons; purchased the Glencoe "Register" in 1873, and is 
still conducting it in company with his elder son. To the publishing business he 
added books and stationery in 1875, and since October, 1877, has been of the 
firm of Hall and Greaves, druggists and booksellers. As a journalist, he looks for 
the abstract right of a (|uestion, and advocates it with great power. His political 
leaders in the " Register" have repeatedly found many inlluential factors in the 
public sentiment ot the state. 

Soon after settling here Mr. Hall was elected county superintendent of schools, 
holding the office four years, and performing its duties in a most satisfactory man- 
ner. Probably no man in the state has given more attention to the subject of 
school te.xt-books, and the general wants of institutions of learning of all grades, 
than Mr. Hall. It has been, in fact, his study for more than thirty years, and he 
has done a noble work in assisting to raise the standard of the public schools of 
McLeod county. While a member of the legislature in the session of 1873 he 
did his best work on the committee on education. On every cpiestion to which 
he gives his thoughts his mental insight seems to be not only clear, but instanta- 
neous. 

Mr. Hall has always been a republican, and is the most prominent man of his 
party in the county. In 1874 and 1876 his friends insisted on presenting his 
name to the convention tor nomination for congfress, and on both occasions he 
received the vote of several counties. 

In 1877 he was the republican candidate tor state senator, running in a district 



354 THE UNITED STATES BJOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

which usually gives six hundred democratic majority, yet coming within less than 
one hundred and hfty votes of an election. He is a strong political canvasser. 
In his earlier life he enjoyed the confidence oi many men whose lives have since 
become a large part of history ; among them was notably the late Salmon P. 
Chase. 

In his religious views, .Mr. Hall would be classed among the liberals. 

In June, 1S54, Miss Maria Cobb, of Rochester, New York, became the wife 
of Mr. Mall, and they have lost two children and have three living: Clifford 1'"., 
aged twent)'-four, is a i)artner of his father in the printing business; Harry L., 
aged sixtec-n, and Maria L., aged nine years, are attending school. 



HON. THOMAS J. HUNT, 

DODCE CENTER. 

THE subject of this sketch is a triplet, the middle one of three boys: George 
Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The )'oungest, James 
Madison, died at two \ears of aye, and Georye Washington is a orraduate ol the 
medical department of Harvard University, and practicing in New Hampshire. 
The three sons were born at Georgia, Franklin county, Vermont, on the 20th of 
May, 1829, their parents being Harry and Mary (Staples) Hunt. The father, 
a soldier in 1812-15, is yet living, being eighty-eight years old; the mother died 
in 1876, aeed eiehtv-two years. Both were born in Connecticut, and were of old 
Puritanic families. 

Thomas |efferson spent his boyhood on his father's farms in Georgia and 
New Haven, Vermont; received an acatlemic etlucation in the Troy Conference 
School at Poultncy, Vermont ; fitted himself lor a surveyor; came to Wasioja, 
Dodge county, Minnesota, in the spring of 1S57; took a subcontract lor govern- 
ment surveying, and has done more or less of that business, though not lor the 
government, for twenty years. He is now engineer antl surveyor for the corpora- 
tion of Dodge Center, where he has lived since 1872. 

In August, 1862, at the time of the Indian outbreak, Mr. Hunt enlisted as a 
private in company B, loth Minnesota Volunteers; was on the frontier a little 
more than one year, and then went south with his regiment. He was promoted 
to first sergeant and second lieutenant, and was part of the time on the stafi ot 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 355 

General Scofield, and later on that of General Rosecrans. He was wounded in 
the face at the battle of Nashville, Tennessee, having five teeth knocked out, and 
draws a small pension. His military record is in every respect highly creditable. 

He was a member of the legislature in 1S59, 1S60 and 1870, doing much more 
work than talking. 

In 1872 he left farming, opened a store at Dodge Center, and has since been 
in the mercantile business. 

He is a republican in politics, a Master Mason, and a deacon in the Congrega- 
tional church; an upright, high-minded, active and very useful citizen. He has 
held various town offices, and has shown his public spirit in many ways, takino- 
great pride in the growth of the young railroad town where he resides. 

Miss Mary M. Langdon, of New Haven, Vermont, became the wife of Mr. 
Hunt, on the i6th of February, 1853. They have three children living, and lost 
their fourth child in infancy. Ella, the elder daughter, is the wife of James C. 
Miller, of Ellino-ton, Minnesota; Jessie M. is a student at Carlton Colleo-e, North- 
field, Minnesota, and Harry Hamlin, the only son, is pursuing his studies at home. 



PROFESSOR DAVID C JOHN, A.M., 

MANKA TO. 

DAVID CLARKE JOHN, principal of the normal school at Mankato, is of 
Welsh descent, being about the seventh generation from the progenitor of 
the family in this country. He is a son of Isaiah John, farmer, and, later in life, 
manufacturer and merchant, and Mary Bitler. and was born in Columbia county, 
Pennsylvania, on the 14th of February, 1835. He was reared on his father's farm 
until sixteen years of age ; then prepared for college at Dickinson Seminary, 
Williamsport, Pennsylvania ; entered the sophomore class of Dickinson College 
Carlisle, in September, 1856, and was graduated in 1859. 

Young John had been converted at twelve years of age, and joined the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church ; at seventeen commenced exercising his gifts as a local 
preacher, and immediately after leaving college went on the circuit, continuing 
his theological studies in private, — in other words, educating himself. He preached 
one year at Carlisle, two years at Baltimore, Maryland, two years at Bloomsburgh, 
and one year at Lewisburgh, in his native state, and at the end of six years in the 



41 



■356 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICA I. DICTIONARY. 

pastorate, his health, which had Ijcen gradually failing, gave way, and he was 
almost completely laid aside from lal)or for three years. The main trouble was 
with his voice, which he could not use in addressing a large congregation, but at 
leno-th could use it in a school-room, so he commenced teaching. He was con- 
nected in that vocation one year with the State Normal School at Bloomsburgh, 
and was four years at the head of the high school at Milton, Pennsylvania, hav- 
ing Pfreat success as a teacher. 

In the summer of 1873 Professor John accepted an in\itation to become prin- 
cipal of the State Normal School at Mankato ; reached this city on the 21st of 
Au'"^ust, and has since been at the head of this institution, the second (jf the kind 
establislied in tliis state. The first was started at Winona; a third is in opera- 
tion at Saint Cloud. In the year 1866 the legislature of Minnesota appropriated 
five thousand dollars for erecting the necessary buiUlings and paying the profess- 
ors and teachers of the Second State Normal .School, provided the city of Man- 
kato should donate an equal amount for the same purpose. The city complied 
with the condition, and the school was opened in the basement of the M. E. 
Church, on the ist of .September, 1868, under the superintendence of Professor 
Georsfe M. Gaye. On the 26th of October following it was removed to the sec- 
ond story of J. |. Shawbut's store, corner of Front and Main streets. The school 
continued there until the 26th of .April, 1870, when the Normal building was for- 
mally opened and occupied, about one month previous to the graduation of the 
first class. Professor Gage continued in the principalship until June, 1872, when 
he was succeeded by Miss Julia A. Sears, who served in that capacity for one 
year. She was succeeded by the present incumbent, on the 22d of July, 1873. 

Professor John is a very genial man, courteous and pleasant alike to teachers 
and pupils, and impartial to all associated w-ith him. He has a rare fund of good 
humor, and marked felicity and fertility of illustration, which makes him very 
agreeable in the recitation room, as well as in private circles. He is one of the 
most accurate thinkers and best educators in the state. He has had peculiar 
difficulties to overcome, growing out of the condition of the school before he 
took charge of it, but by firm, judicious management he has placed the Mankato 
institution in a most tlourishing comlition. While he is firm and rigid in his dis- 
cipline, few teachers secure the respect and affection of students more than Pro- 
fessor John. He has secured, since coming into the state, a tine position aniong 
its educated men, ranking very high as a scholar. He is well read in philosophy, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 357 

as well as theology, and is a rich sermonizer. He preaches occasionally, and has 
a cordial welcome to the best pulpits in the state. 

Professor John is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity, and while in 
Pennsylvania was at one time eminent commander of Crusade Commandery at 
Bloomsburgh. He is also an Odd-Fellow, and a member of the Order of United 
Workmen. 

On the 23d of August, i860. Miss Adaline Emily Wells, of Wellsville, York 
county, Pennsylvania, became the wife of Professor John, and they lost one child 
in infanc)', and have four children living: Anna Miriam, aged fourteen; James 
Wells, twelve; David Clarke and Willie Nelson (twins), aged seven years. 

In 1872 Professor John published " The Guiding Star," a collection of Sunday- 
school music, three-fourths of the music and about a dozen of the h)'mns being of 
his own composing. He has written a few poems, which have had an extensive 
circulation through the newspapers. 



JAMES DOUGLAS, 

MOORHEAD. 

TAMES DOUGLAS, one of the first men to locate at Moorhead, Clay county, 
J on the eastern shore of the Red River of the North, is a native of Roxburo-h 
county, Scotland, and was born on the 13th of March, 1821. His parents were 
John Douglas, a miller, and Mary Hood. He comes from one of the branches 
of the old Douglas family, so noted in Scotch history, but has paid more atten- 
tion to his own individual concerns than to the pedigree of his ancestors. He 
evidently believes that one's claims to attention and respect are limited to him- 
self. 

James crossed the ocean to Montreal with his parents in 1832, the year that 
the cholera first found its way into the new world, and there he was educated 
in private schools, attending to the elementary branches only, but laying the 
foundation of a good business education. He learned the carpenter's trade when 
a young man, and as soon as he was "out of his time" commenced carrying on 
the building business, pursuing it for many years, usually having from eighty to 
ninety men working for him. In 1S52 he built saw and planing mills at a cost 
of fifty thousand dollars, selling out at the close of 1870, his health having been 



35^ THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

poor for some time; and a change of climate being deemeil necessary. The mills 
arc still known as the Douglas mills. 

In February. 1S71, he started for the Red River country, and reached Moor- 
head before the close of that nKjnlh. A single claim had been made by a man 
of the ubiquitous name of .Smith, and one house stood here — put up by a stage 
company before the Indian outbreak of 1862. The Northern Pacific railroad was 
not located here until six or seven months later — -September, 1S71. 

Mr. Douglas started the lumber and hardware trade, bringing his nails, etc., 
from Saint Paul. He commenced trading in a temporary shed, ten by twelve 
feet; soon afterward erected a frame building, twenty-lour by lorty feet, and in 
1876 put up the elegant brick store, thirty by seventy feet, which he now occupies 
for a hardware and grocery store and post-office, he being postmaster since 1871. 
At an early day here Mr. Douglas sold Hour and feed, as well as lumber and 
hardware, he supplying contractors, his entire business amounting to from forty 
thousand to seventy-five thousand dollars a year. 

He brought the first load of lumber, one hundred thousand feet, to Moorhead, 
drawing it all the way by teams from Morris, a distance of one hundred miles. He 
also brought the first steam thresher into the Red River valley, purchasing it 
for the use of the farmers, wlien the)' hatl no means of tlieir own. 

In 1875 Mr. Douglas Ijuilt the Manitoba and Minnesota, two steamers, for 
the Merchants' International line, which he organized, the steamers to ply be- 
tween Moorhead and Winnipeg. Subsequently he sold them to the Kittson 
line. Through his inlluence the Moorhead Manufacturing Company was organ- 
ized, in 1874, its first step in the way of improvements being to put up a fiouring 
mill with four run of stone, at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars ; other ad- 
ditions have since been made to the mill at an expense of several thousand dollars. 

In 1878 Mr. Douglas built a steamboat ;ind three barges for the contractors 
of the Canadian Pacific railroad — Pembina branch — an enti-rprise which is to 
connect at \\'inni|ieg with the Saint Paul and Pacific railroad. 

Mr. Douglas has but little to do with politics, Init his s)-m|)athies are with the 
re|)ublican pari\-, h<' being an intimate as well as political friend of Senator Win- 
dom. Mr. Douglas was judge of probate for Clay county in 1872 and 187,:;, and 
is chairman o{ the school board of the city of Moorhead. 

He is a christian man, his connection here beino; with the Presbvterian 
church ; is very active in the temperance cause, having been a teetotaler from 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 359 

boyhood, and his sympathies are with every enterprise having for its aim the 
social, mental or moral good of the people. 

Mr. Douglas was married on the 24th of August, 1853, his wife being Miss 
Wilhelmina Squire, of Montreal, a daughter of Rev. William Squire, many years 
superintendent of Wesleyan missions in Canada East, and well known as an 
eloquent preacher, and a zealous, untiring christian worker. Mrs. Douglas has 
had five children, and lost two of them. She is a worthy descendant of a noble 
sire — an affectionate and true christian mother. 



NATHANIEL S. TEFFT, M.D., 

PLAIN VIEW. 

NATHANIEL STACY TEFFT, many years a physician in Wabasha coun- 
ty, Minnesota, and repeatedly representing his county in the legislature, 
was born in Hamilton, Madison county. New York, on the i6th of July, 1830. 
His parents, Jeremiah and Sarah (Sweet) Tefft, were descendants of early Rhode 
Island families. His father was educated at Newport, in that state, and was a 
classmate of Commodore Perry. When the subject of this notice was about five 
years old the family moved into Chautauqua county. New York, settling on a 
farm four miles from Mayville, the county seat. The son received an academic 
education at Fredonia, Mayville and Panama, attending at the last named place 
a private school of the normal character. 

Mr. Tefft commenced reading medicine in 1848 with Dr. James Fenner, of 
Sherman, Chautauqua county; attended lectures two sessions, in 1851-52, in Cin- 
cinnati; there received his diploma in the latter year; practiced four years at 
Sherman, and in 1856 pushed westward across the Mississippi river and located 
at Minneiska, Wabasha county, sixteen miles from his present home, there prac- 
ticing for five years. During most of this period he also served as justice of the 
peace and postmaster. Postoffices were scarce in Minnesota, off the river, twenty- 
two and twenty-three years ago, and the Minneiska office supplied the country 
for a radius of twelve or fifteen miles, in some directions twenty miles. 

In 1861 Dr. Tefft removed to Plainview, and has here been in active practice 
to the present time, having a good reputation alike as a physician and surgeon, 
standing in the front rank as an operative surgeon. 



360 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Dr. Tefft was a member of the first state legislature of Minnesota, being 
elected in the autumn of 1857; was in the same body again, lower branch, in 
1861, and in the senate in 1871. In the first session he strongly opposed the 
loan bill of five million dollars for railroad purposes; went before the people and 
canvassed aoainsl it, and for this act became so popular that when he went to the 
leo-islature the second time he received every vole in his town. 

The politics of the Doctor were originally democratic, with a strong tincture 
of free-soilisni, and lu- naturally became a republican when that party was formed, 
his sentiments in this respect remaining unchanged. His name not unfrequently 
appears in th(; list of delegates to state and other conventions of his party. He 
is an inlluential man in the community in more than one respect, being among 
the foremost men in furthering local enterprises. 

He is a member of the order of Odd-Fellows, having passed all the chairs; 
is a member of the Minnesota State Medical Society, and was a trustee oi the 
Hospital for the Insane, at Saint Peter, for four years, his term expiring on the 
1st of January, 1878. He is well known among the medical fraternity ot the 
state, his long and successful practice commanding their high regard. 

The Doctor has cpiite a mechanical turn of mintl, and discovers the beauties or 
deformities of a piece of mechanism at the glance of the eye. He invented the 
first automatic binder that made all the motions in binding grain by machinery. 

The wife of Dr. Tefft was Miss Hattie S. Gibbs, daughter of Dr. G. F. Gibbs, 
of Plainview ; they were married on the loth of November, 1866, and had one 
child, losing it in infancy. 



LEONARD DAY, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

FEW of the pioneers of Minnesota are more entitled to be called self-made 
men, or have been more honestly or industriously successful, than the subject 
of this brief memoir. Leonard Day is a native of Leeds, Kennebec county, 
Maine, and dates his birth the 6th of May, 181 1. He is the son of a farmer, 
William Day, and his wife Lucy 7tce Thompson. His great-grandfather Day 
came from England at an early day and settled in Massachusetts, whence the 
grandfather of our subject moved to Georgetown, Maine, where was born Will- 
iam Day, who afterward removed to Leeds. The Thompsons were also from 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 361 

England and settlers of Monmouth, Maine, which was the birthplace of Lucy 
Thompson. The grandfather of Leonard was a soldier in the continental army ; 
his father was in the war of 18 12-15. 

The early years of our subject were spent in working on the farm during 
the summers and attending the common schools through the winter months. 
His educational facilities ended in these district schools, and they were common, 
indeed, when compared with those of the present day. When eighteen years 
old he engaged in lumbering and farming. In this business he continued for 
twenty-five years, and they were long years of hard, rugged labor, such as but 
few outside of Maine can appreciate. 

In 1S54 Mr. Day made up his mind that he had lived in Maine long enough, 
and that there must be better opportunities in the western country for attainino- 
success for himself and family. He therefore joined the emigrants then crowd- 
ing toward the west, and came directly to Minneapolis, which was then but a 
small village. Here he at once engaged in lumbering, principally, but also opened 
a farm. In this business he has continued ever since, and, although he has lost 
in the aggregate about one hundred thousand dollars, yet he has been very 
successful. By incessant toil and earnest, energetic attention to his business, 
being fortunately possessed of e.xcellent business qualifications, he has been en- 
abled to attain a handsome competence, and to give his family a far different 
start in life than what he enjoyed himself About 1S70 he extended his field 
of action to include the Hour manufacturing. He is the head of Leonard Day 
and Sons, Day, Rollins and Co., and Leonard Day and Co., — all large and promi- 
nent firms, and doing an extensive business. In their lumber business all the 
timber is cut from their own lands, brought down the Mississippi river and sawed 
at their own mills, averaging from ten million to twenty million feet yearly. 

In politics, Mr. Day was originally an old-line whig, until the dissolution of 
that party, when he joined the republican party, of which he has been a staunch 
supporter ever since. In 1872, 1S73 and 1874 he was a member of the city council, 
against his desires, preferring rather to attend to his private affairs than to bother 
with public office. 

On the loth of May, 1832, Mr. Day was married at Wesley, Washington 
county, Maine, to Miss Lois Averil, who died in Minneapolis on the 31st of 
January, 1873, leaving six children: John Wesley, Lorenzo D., Augustine A., 
William H. H., Emma M, and Lois Anna ; the four sons are all married, and 



362 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

engaged in business with their father, from whom they inlierit steady, industrious 
habits, that insure them successful careers. Mr. Day was married the second 
time, at Minneapolis, on the 15th of February, 1874, to Miss Etta Robinson, by 
whom he has one child, Leonard I)a\-, junior. 



AMHERST H. WILDER, 

SAIXr PAUL. 

AMHER.ST HOLCOMB WILDER, the subject of this brief biography, is 
^ of English descent, and the grandson of Amherst Wilder, a tanner and 
currier, who moved from Vermont and settled in Lewis, Essex county, New 
York, in 182 i. He is the son of Alanson Wilder, also a tanner and currier, and 
later in life a merchant, who married Evelina Holcomb, who had two children, 
Amherst H., born on the old homestead of his grandfather in Lewis, on the 7th 
of Jul)', 1828, and Helen Marion, now the wife of John L. Merriam, one of the 
leading business-men of Saint Paul. 

Amherst spent most of his )outh in securing an education, finishing his school 
studies at the West Poultney (\'ermont) Academy; at twenty commenced busi- 
ness for himself, engaging in the manufacture of iron, and merchandising at Lewis 
in company with his father, continuing that business till the spring of 1859, when 
we find him at Saint Paul, in the firm of J. C. and H. C. Burbank and Co. The 
business of this^iouse was merchandising, commissions, storage and forwarding, — 
a house whose trade soon spread over a wide territory, and which showed a 
strong disposition to "push things" with remarkable enterprise. It put in opera- 
tion the first line of steamers that ever ran on the Red River oi the North. 

Mr. Wilder continued in this Ux\x\ until 1866 ; a little later was in the whole- 
sale grocery business one year, in compan)- with Channing .Seabury, since which 
time he has been engaged here in government contracting and transportation, in 
connection with [ohn L. Merriam ; and in connection with John H. Charles, of 
Sioux City, Iowa, he has a steamboat line on the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. 
He is also connected with the post-traders at Forts Keogh and Custer, and in a 
merchandising and outfitting house at Miles City, near Fort Keogh, Montana. 

Mr. Wilder is a stockholder in the Saint Paul Foundry and Manufacturing 
Company, and by investing in such enterprises is aiding to build up the capital 




r »^ f t 



Mif'irSlMMUASi'T: sISS^^cltfSRFY 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 365 

of the " North Star State." He is also a stockholder and director of the First 
National Bank of Saint Paul, and the Merchants' National Bank of the same 
place. For years he has taken great interest in the several railroads centering 
in Saint Paul or tending to further the interests of this city. He is a director of 
the Saint Paul and Sioux City, the Sioux City and Saint Paul (being vice-presi- 
dent of the latter company), the- Saint Paul, Stillwater and Taylor's Falls, and 
the Hudson and River Falls Railroad Companies. His funds, energies and solid 
judgment are enlisted in whatever is likely to promote the welfare of this young 
commonwealth. 

Mr. Wilder is not, we believe, a communicant in any religious denomination, 
but he is a church-goer, a liberal supporter of the gospel, and a vestryman in 
Saint Paul's Episcopal Church. 

On the i8th of September, 1861, Miss Fanny Spencer, daughter of Hon. 
Joshua A. Spencer, of Utica, New York, became the wife of Mr. Wilder, and 
they have one child, Cornelia Day, born at Saint Paul on the 24th of June, 1868. 



GEORGE W. MOORE, 

SAINT PAUL. 

GEORGE WILLIAM MOORE, deputy-collector of customs at Saint Paul 
since 1861, and a resident of the city since 1850, is a native of Pennsylvania, 
being born in Wells, Bradford county, on the 28th of May, 1824. His father, 
Israel Moore, was a son of William Moore, who was in the continental army from 
New Jersey. His mother, before her marriage, was Julia Ann Pettingell, whose 
grandfather was born in Providence, Rhode Island. 

From five to fourteen years of age George attended school about six months 
in a year, in a log-house in his native county; in 1S3S crossed the line to Elmira, 
New York, and learned the printing business, after which he attended the academy 
at Chester, Orange county. New York, at sundry times, in all perhaps two years, 
teaching also at intervals during the same period. Subsequently he worked in 
the book office of John F. Trow, of New York city, leaving there when twenty- 
six years of age, and reaching Saint Paul on the i6th of May, 1850. 

On locating here Mr. Moore became foreman of the weekly " Pioneer" office; 
in January, 1852, joined Colonel J. P. Owensin publishing the " Minnesotian," a 



366 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

weekl\- at lirst ; started the daily of the same nann- in 1854, and was connected 
with it until 1S60; Dr. Thomas Foster purchased the interest of Colonel Owens 
in 1857. During this period, in 1859, ^he "Times" was united with the "Min- 
nesotian," and the firm of Nevvson, Moore, Foster and Co. was elected to do the 
legislative printing in 1859. 

Mr. Moore received his appointment of deputy-collector of customs in April, 
1861, and is chief of the office here, the collector being stationed at Pembina, 
Dakota Territory. By virtue of his office he has also been custodian of the custom- 
house and postoffice building since its completion in 1874. Latterly Mr. Moore 
has not had very good health, and has had to be absent occasionally from the 
city, always, however, leaving a careful manager in charge of his business. When 
at his post he is very faithful and prompt in the discharge of every duty. He has 
held a few offices in the municipality of Saint Paul, and has guarded with vigi- 
lance the interests of his adopted home. 

Mr. Moore has been identified with the republican party from its inception ; 
was chairman of the republican county committee for more than a dozen years, 
and has been an indefatigable worker in its interests. 

He has been a member of the Ancient Landmark Lodg^e of Freemasons since 
1854, the year it was organized. 

Mr. Moore was married in Saint Paul to Miss Julia Tuttle.a native of. Maine, 
on the 2d of June, 1859, and they have one child, Callie, aged twelve years. Mrs. 
Moore is a daughter of Colonel |. T. Tuttle, of Mercer, Maine, whose ancestors 
settled in Dover, New Hampshire, before the middle of the seventeenth centur\-. 



HON. LUKE HULETT, 

FARIBAVLT. 

LUKE HULETT, who opened the first farm in Rice county, Minnesota, and 
' is still living on it, is a native of W'allingford, \"ermont, his ancestors being 
from Massachusetts. He was born on the i6lh of Januar)-, 1803, his parents 
beino- Asahel and Olive Goodell Hulett, both born and reared in Belchertown, 
Massachusetts. Mason Hulett, the grandfather of Luke, was a captain in the 
French and Indian war, commissioned by George \\\, and his eldest son, Nehe- 
miah, was in the revolution, entering near its close, at sixteen years of age. At 



i 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 367 

twenty our subject left his father's farm; went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; be- 
came a contractor on the internal improvements of that state, thus operating for 
three or four years; then removed to Elkhart county, Indiana, and built the first 
house where Goshen, the countj' seat, now stands. There he farmed for eighteen 
years ; subsequentl}' spent four or five years in cultivating land in Green Lake 
county, Wisconsin, and in 1852 came to Saint Paul, Minnesota. 

In May, 1853, Mr. Hulett visited the place where Faribault now stands, three 
months after the Wapacoota band of Sioux Indians had disposed of their lands 
to the United States crovernment. The Indians had not left, and their wicrwams 
were abundant. There was no sign of civilization between Mendota, near Saint 
Paul, and the mouth of Straight river, where it unites with the Cannon at this 
point, and nothing of that kind here except Alexander Faribault's old trading- 
post. There was no frame house in the place. Mr. Faribault commenced his 
soon after, and had broken some ground years before, but never fairly opened a 
farm. Mr. Hulett made a claim under the territorial claim law, built him a cabin, 
commenced farming in earnest, and now resides only a few rods from the original 
cabin, one mile west of Main street. Levi Nutting, since surveyor-general of the 
district of Minnesota, accompanied him and made a claim, but did not settle here 
till two years later. About 1862 Mr. Hulett built a grist-mill, in company with 
Mr. Halsey M. Matteson, on the Cannon river, disposing of his interest in it two 
or three years later. 

He has lived a very quiet, unobtrusive and industrious life, devoted exclusively 
to agricultural pursuits. He was many years ago chairman of the board of county 
commissioners, and a member of the legislature in 1859-60. He was an old- 
line whig till the demise of that party, and has since been a republican. He 
has voted at every general election ever held in Rice county. 

In September, 1827, Miss Matilda Waldsmith, of Clermont county, Ohio, was 
joined in wedlock with Mr. Hulett, and of twelve children, the fruit of this union, 
only seven, all daughters and all married, are living: Clarissa J. is the wife of 
John Evans, of Missouri ; Caroline P., of Robert Smith, of Faribault ; Esther M., 
of Solomon Atherton, of Faribault ; Mary Ellen, of Emmons P. Taylor, of Dodge 
Center, Minnesota; Harriet Eliza, of Frank Carrier, of Iowa; Olive, of Orlando 
Johnson, of Medford, Steele county, Minnesota, and Frances Emma, of Austin 
Miller, of Faribault. Mrs. Miller was the first pure American child born in 
Faribault. 



368 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mrs. Hiilett is ten years younger than her husband, and quite active. Mr. 
Hulf'tt feels very sensibly the infirmities of age, and does very little work. His 
mind is active and his memory quite clear. His home and farm are in the 
corporation limits, which are three miles scjuarc, and in twenty-five years he has 
seen spring up a city of six thousand inhabitants — the handsomest city of the 
smaller class in the commonwealth of Minnesota. 



HON. WARREN SMITH, 

WASECA. 

AMONG the residents of Waseca county in the territorial days of Minnesota 
^ is Warren Smith, its present treasurer. He has held \'arious offices of 
trust and honor, and has uniformly discharged their duties in an acceptable and 
satisfactory manner. He is a native of Barnstable, Massachusetts, where he was 
born on the 15th of November, 1821, his parents being Amasa Smith, a ship- 
carpenter, and Hannah Sturgis. He lost his father when he was eight years old, 
and earned his living after that date, the widow having eight children and no 
property. Warren was the seventh child. At sixtt-en he became an apprentice 
to the boat-building trade at Provincetown, on Cape Cod, and worked at it in his 
native state until thirty-three years of age. 

In 1855 Mr. Smith came to the Territory of Minnesota, locating at first in 
Faribault, Rice county, where he trafficked in general merchandise two years, and 
then removed to .Saint Mary, Waseca county. There he was engaged in mer- 
cantile business when the .Sioux outbreak occurred, in the summer ot 1862 ; be- 
came sutler of the loth Minnesota Infanlr_\-, and accompanied General Sibley to 
the i)hiins. The next season he went to .Saint Louis with the regiment ; soon 
afterward returned to Waseca county, and became a merchant at Wilton, then 
the county seat, trading there four or five years. In 1870 Mr. .Smith removed to 
Waseca and engaged in the lumber busintiss. In 1S73 he was elected county 
treasurer, and by reflections still holds the office. He is a man in whom the citi- 
zens of the county have implicit confidence, being perfectly reliable and always 
at his post. While a resident of Saint Mary Mr. Smith served as postmaster, 
justice of the peace, and county commissioner, antl while at Wilton was county 
audiltir. He was a nn;mber of the legislature in i 86g. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 369 

He is a republican, with whig antecedents, a third-degree Mason, and past- 
grand in Odd-Fellowship. 

Miss Susan E. Johnson, of Provincetown, Massachusetts, was married to Mr. 
Smith at Providence, Rhode Island, on the 9th of October, 1853, and of five 
children, the fruit of this union, four are living: Minnie M., Mary L., George W. 
and Charles A., all residinu- at home. 



HON. GEORGE B. KINGSLEY, 

BLUE EARTH CITT. 

GEORGE BRADFORD KINGSLEY, a pioneer in Blue Earth City, and 
a native of Delaware county, New York, was born in the town of Deposit 
on the 2 1st of March, 1832, his parents being Isaiah C. and Catharine (Nutter) 
Kingsley. His grandfather, Bradford Kingsley, was from Connecticut. George 
received a common-school education; learned the carriage-maker's trade, the trade 
of his father; worked at it seven or eight years, and in November, 1854, came 
to Minnesota and became a clerk in a drug store at .Saint Paul. He afterward 
spent a short time in Red Wing, and in March, 1856, settled in Blue Earth City, 
purchasing an eighth interest in the town. At that time there were not more 
than a dozen families in the county. Mr. Kingsley aided in laying out the village, 
and dealt in cabinet-ware for a few years in company with another man. Prior 
to and during this period he read law more or less, and about ten years ago was 
admitted to the bar, the law now being his profession. He has near town a farm 
of two hundred and forty acres, which he is opening, working it, however, by 
proxy ; he has also property in the village, and is in comfortable circumstances. 
During the territorial days of Minnesota Mr. Kingsley received from Gov- 
ernor Gorman the appointment of justice of the peace ; was afterward elected to 
the same office, and held it several years. He was clerk of the court at an early 
day. In 1857 he was elected to the legislature, being in the first session held 
after Minnesota became a state. He has been a member of the board of super- 
vi.sors of the county, and is now its chairman ; is also city and township justice, 
and in many ways has made himself a very useful citizen. He has always been 
a diligent reader, is well posted on current events and general history, and has 
a good literary taste and much polish of mind and manners. 



370 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Kingsley has always belonged to the democratic party, and is often sent 
as a delegate to district or state conventions, holding a prominent place in the 
party. He has repeatedly been the candidate of his party for the state senate or 
house, and, though living in a strongly republican district, has come within a few 
votes of being elected. He is past-master in the Masonic order. 

On the 23d of October, 1862, Miss Adelaide D. Nichols, of Lockport, New 
York, was married to Mr. Kingsley, and they lia\-e one child, h'rank Clinton, aged 
fourteen ; he is a student in the graded schools of Blue Earth Cit_\-, ami lias an 
excellent standing. 

Mrs. Kingsley is a member of the Presbyterian church and very active in 
religious and humane enterprises, 'being secretary for Blue Earth City of the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and county secretary for the Minnesota 
Sunday-.School Temperance League. Her heart is in every good cause; she has 
a hand ready for every good work, a well cultivated mind, and decided literary 
talent ; her pen as well as her hand is used in philanthropic work, and her arti- 
cles-, both prose and poetic, are highl\- meritorious, alike in sentiment and hnish. 



HON. EDWARD THOMPSON, 

}IOI<. I //. 

EDWARD THOMPSON, a pioneer in Houston county and the leading citi- 
zen of Hokah, was born near Jordan, Province of Ontario, Canada, on the 
8th of March, 1S27. His father, James Thompson, went from Massachusetts and 
settled at the falls of Twenty Mile creek, Ontario, and there built a woolen-mill. 
His grandfather fought for the independence of the American colonies. The 
mother of Edward was Sarah .Snure, she being of German extraction. The 
Thompsons were English. 

Edward was educated in private schools in Canatla; moved with the family to 
Roscoe, Winnebago county, Illinois, in 1842; studied natural philosophy, chem- 
istr)', engineering, and some of the scientific l)ranchcs ; learned the trade ot a ma- 
chinist, and worketl at it in different places until 1S51, when he pitched his tent 
at Hokah, and is the oldest settler in the coiuit}' now living here. This part of 
the territory was then neutral ground, and Indians were much more abundant 
than white men. Job Brown, of Brownsville, was Mr. Thompson's nearest neigh- 
bor on the west side of the Mississippi river. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



01 



Here, in 1852, Mr. Thompson built a saw-mill on Thompson's creek, and run 
it three or four years, — the first mill on the west side of the river north of the 
Iowa line. In 1853 his brother, Clark W. Thompson, joined him, bringing ma- 
chinery for a flouring-mill, which was at first put up in the saw-mill, and which 
made the first flour in southern Minnesota. 

Three or four years later Mr. Thompson visited the city of Washington and 
aided in securing a land grant for a railroad, and grading was commenced in this 
vicinity a short time before the crash of 1857, and after that the work was soon 
suspended. It was commenced again in 1865, and Mr. Thompson became master 
mechanic of the road, holding that position until 1870, when the road was com- 
pleted to Faribault county. 

Since that date he has been in the lumber or milling business, running a saw- 
mill until 1874, and then a flouring-mill, rebuilding the latter in 1877, and since 
leasing it for a term of years. It has four run of stone and all the modern im- 
provements, being one of the best mills in Houston county. 

Mr. Thompson was originally a whig, and joined the republican party in its 
earliest incipiency, presiding over the flrst meeting of the kind in this part of the 
territory ; his brother, Clark W., was nominated at the same convention as a can- 
didate for the territorial council. The convention was held at Caledonia, the 
county seat, under an oak tree. It was the year before the republican party was 
organized in the territory under that name. 

Mr. Thompson was the first postmaster at Hokah, receiving his appointment 
from President Pierce ; he was also the first justice of the peace at this place, and 
the first treasurer of Houston county. The latter office he held but a few months, 
and less than twenty-five dollars passed through his hands. 

He was a member of the state senate in 1873 '^'''tl 1874, and is now county 
commissioner. He is a man of much enterprise and a good deal of force of 
character, and thoroughly identified with the history of Houston county. He is 
a Knight Templar among the Masons, and was one of the charter members of 
Hokah Lodge, No. 17. 

Mr. Thompson has a second wife ; the first was Miss Susan M. Jenks, of Ros- 
coe, Illinois, chosen in July, 1849 ! she died in September, 1862, leaving four chil- 
dren, two previously dying in infancy: Alice M. is the wife of Eugene G. Perkins, 
of La Crosse, Wisconsin ; Clark J. has a wife and lives in Hokah, and James S. 
and P^-ank E. are single. His present wife was Mrs. Orinda Hulbert, of Ogdens- 



372 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

burgh, New York, and daughter of Alfred Baldwin ; they were married on the 25th 
of September, 1865, and have three children: Charles Edward, Susie Agnes, and 
Sarah Genevieve. The family attend the Presbyterian church. 

Mr. Thompson's first wife saw the face of no white woman, outside of her own 
famil)-, for more than a year after settling in Hokah. The town he gave that 
name because it is the Indian name oi the river (Root) on which the village is 
situated. 

We made an effort to secure material for a fair sketch of Clark W. Thompson, 
but failed. He is an older brother of the subject of this sketch, being born on 
the 23d of July, 1825. He was educated at the seminary at Mount Morris, Illi- 
nois; went to California in 1849; there superintended the construction of a quartz- 
mill ; returned in 1852, and went to Hokah, Minnesota, in 1853, and erected a 
tlouring-mill. He built a large part of the Southern Minnesota railroad between 
the Mississippi river and Wells, his present home, and was president of the com- 
pany some years. He is now engaged in milling and the dairy business. He was 
in the territorial legislature, the territorial council, the constitutional convention 
(1857), and the state senate in 1871 and 1872. 



HON. WILLIAM P. MURRAY, 

SAINT PALL. 

WILLIAM PORTER MURRAY, city attorney and for twelve or thirteen 
sessions a member of the legislature, first of the Territory and then of the 
.State of Minnesota, is of Irish pedigree; his grandfather, William Murray, coming 
over during the latter part of the eighteenth century, settling in Pennsylvania and 
participating in the second war with P3ngland. The father of William was John 
Murray, a jirinter by trade, who died in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1830. His mother, 
Jane W. McCullough Rowan, is still living. William was born in Hamilton, 
Butler, county, Ohio, on the 21st of June, 1827; at fifteen years of age moved 
with his mother to Centreville, Wayne county, Iniliana; there finished his educa- 
tion in the common school, then connected himself with the law department of 
the State University, at Bloomington, and graduated in 1849. 

Mr. Murray came immediately to Saint Paul, and has been in practice here for 
thirty years. Probal>ly no man in the state has had an ecpial share in its legislation. 




//^y^;^^ 




B£aS. &.S»'ulW»Ttlt.rST^-i- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. m 

He was a member of tlic house in 1852, 1853 and 1857; was in the territorial 
council in 1854 and 1855, being president of the council the latter year; was a 
member of the constitutional convention in 1857, of the house in 1863 and 1868, 
and of the senate in 1866, 1867, 1875 and 1876. When the democratic party was 
in the ascendancy in the state, prior to i860, Mr. Murray, as the records show, 
was usually placed at the head of one or more important committees, like the judi- 
ciary or railroad committee; and since the republicans have ruled in the legisla- 
ture, while he has been chairman oi no committee, he has usually occupied 
positions indicating that his legislative experience, sound judgment and mental 
resources, were fully appreciated by those opposing him in politics. 

Mr. Murray has served sixteen years in the common council of Saint Paul, 
and was its president six terms. He is now city attorney, an office which he has 
held since June, 1876. He is a member of the board of managers of the State 
Reform School, an institution which owes, in a cTeat measure, its existence to 
his efforts while a member ol the legislature. The county of Murray was named 
after him. 

Mr. Murray has always been a democrat, and, as a politician, has usually been 
cpiite active. His constituents in the city oi .Saint Paul, as is shown by this brief 
sketch, have kept him in office much of the time, and he has been a faithful 
worker for the interests of the city, the county and the state. 

As a lawyer, his standing at the Ramsey county bar is highly creditable; and 
as a man, he commands the warm esteem of a large and widening circle of friends. 
He is a Freemason, and past master in the order. 

Mr. Murray was married to Miss Caroline S. Conwell, of Laurel, Indiana, 
on the 7th of April, 1853, and they have had eight children, burying five of them. 
Mr. and Mrs. Murray observed their silver wedding on the 7th of April, 1878. 



DEXTER J. MALTBY, M.D., 

DETROIT. 

THE pioneer physician at Detroit, the seat of justice of Becker county, was 
Dr. Dexter j. Maltby, a son of Calvin Maltby, farmer, and Minerva Wood- 
ward, and a native of Watertown, Jefferson county, New York. He was born 

on the 25th of April, 18^3. The Maltbys early settled in Rhode Island, and the 
43 



374 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

great-grandfather of Dexter was in the rc\ olutinnary war. His lather went into 
the second war willi the mother country at the age of seventeen, and was in 
the battle of Sacket's Harbor. 

Dexter was eehicated in the graded schools of Watertown, and had begun 
the study of medicine when the civil war commenced. In the autumn of 1861 
he enlisted as a ])ri\ate in the 94th New \'ork Infantry, serving much of the 
time, the first two and a half years,- as a hospital steward. He was in eight 
pitched battles, and received onl\- one or two very slight woumls. At the battle 
of Gettysburg!! he was taken piMsoner, paroled, and released at the end of 
three days. In April, 1S64, Mr. Mallb\' went before General Casey's military ex- 
amining board, and was commissioned lieutenant, but before the papers reached 
him hc' was taken jjrisoner at the battle of W'elden Railroad, Petersburgh, \'ir- 
ginia, and spent six months in Libl)y Prison and at .Salisbury, North Carolina, 
being finally released and reaching our lines at Wilmington, North Carolina, on 
the ist of March, 1865. He was sent directly to the camp Parole Hospital, near 
Annapolis, Maryland, where he had the typhoid fever, and where he remained 
until after Lee's surrender. 

On leaving the service Lieutenant Maltby returned to Watertown, resumed 
his medical studies, continuing them until early in 1S71, when he received a 
certificate from a medical examining boanl, auel came directly to Detroit, reach- 
ing here on tlu; rglh of April ol that year. At that time th(;re were tour tents, 
a frame store and a log hotel in the place, and but few settlers in the vicinity. 
His practice, the lirst season, was largely among railroad men and at Oak Cut, 
foiu' miles west. 

-Since locating here Dr. Maltl)y has attended two courses of lectures in the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, Iowa, and there graduated on 
the 5t]i of lune, 1S74. In the autumn of 1877 he went to New York, and took 
a partial course of lectures in the B(;llevue llos[)ital Medical College, one of the 
best institutions of the kind in the United States. The Doctor has an excellent 
medical education, and hjs reputation as a practitioner and surgeon stands high. 
His rides extend over Becker and into adjoining counties, — htty miles east and 
thirty west. 

Dr. Maltby is a republican in politics, but lets nothing of that kiutl interfere 
with his practice and medical studi(^s. He has written a little for medical period- 
icals, and still more for literary, such as the "Atlantic" and " Scribner's Monthly." 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 375 

He has quite a literary taste and fine talents for writing', ornithology being a 
favorite subject tor his pen. 

He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His religious 
connection is with the Baptists, he being clerk of the Detroit church. 

The Doctor has been married since February 22, 1866, his wife being Miss 
Lizzie H. Hayes, of Watertown, New York. They have three children. 



VESPASIAN SMITH, M.D., 

DULUTH. 

DOCTOR SMITH, son of James and Rebecca Emmet .Smith, was born in 
Mount Vernon, Ohio, on the 21st of October, 1818. He was educated in 
the common and private schools of his native town ; early had an inclination to 
the medical profession, and commenced reading medical works in private, teach- 
ing at the same time. Subsequently read about two years with Dr. J. N. Burr, of 
Mount Vernon ; practiced a few years at New Carlisle, Clark county, Ohio ; 
attended lectures in Cleveland, anil graduated from the medical department of 
Western Reserve College in March, 1S51; returned to New Carlisle and practiced 
there and at Mount Vernon until 1857, when he came to Superior, on Lake 
Superior, Wisconsin, and practiced there three years. iM'om i860 to iS'70 he 
was located at Bayfield, Wisconsin, following his profession, yet holding several 
offices. He was superintendent of schools for Bayfield county awhile ; was on 
the board of supervisors two or three years; was government physician to the 
Chippewa Indians from i860 to 1865, and was register of the United States land 
office, resigning that position in 1870 to remove to Duluth. 

On settling here, Dr. Smith resumed medical practice, and at an early day, as 
at Bayfield, had very extensive rides, extending now ami then a hundrc^d miles 
or more from home. In July, 1876, he was appointed collector of customs tor 
the Port of Duluth, and is now performing the duties of that office, wholly aban- 
doning his profession, except as consulting physician. He has had large ex- 
perience as a physician, and has a wide and excellent reputation tor skill, and all 
the kindly offices connected with the healing art. He continues to prescribe for 
the poor gratuitously. 

Dr. Smith is a member of the State Medical Society, and is serving his second 



T,-]6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPIIfCAI. DICTIONARY. 

term on the state board of health, an office whose membership is filled by the 
governor with a ^'xvwV deal t)f care. 

The Doctor is a ri;publican, with whii( antecedents, and has much intkience 
in the narly. In religious sentiment he is a Unitarian, and in Masonry he stamls 
one degree beU)w royal-arch. 

His wife, chosen on the 9th of June, 1S46, was Miss Charlotte Neeley, of 
New Carlisle, Ohio. They have had four children, losing the first-born, Charles 
Emmet, in March, 1868, aged twent)'-one years; Louisa E., the only daugliter, is 
the wife of Dr. S. C. McCormick, ot Duluth ; b'rank B. is a druggist in Dululli, 
and Willie Neeley is comiileting his education in the local graded schools. 

Dr. Smith was mayor of Duluth in 1873 and 1874, chosen both times without 
opposition. Probably no man in Duluth stanils higher in the esteem of this 
community He has a good deal oi the true nobility ot nature, and belongs to 
that class of whom a commonwealth may be prouil. 



HON. LOUIS A. EVANS, 

SAiyr ciJH'D. 

LOULS A. EVANS, twenty-thrc^e years a resident of Minnesota, is a son of 
■^ Levi Evans, who was a lieutenant in the war of 1812, and was born in a 
place now called Conshohocken, near l'liiladel|)hia. on the 21I ol November, 1822. 
The maiden name of his mother was Elizabeth Wills; she is still living, her 
home being in Philadelphia. His father died about 1826. Mr. Evans's forefather 
came over with William Penn, anil bought a township of land in Pennsylvania of 
him, on pari of which land members of the family still live. 

Louis was educated in the graded schools of Philadelphia; there ser\'ed an 
apprenticeship in a piano-torte manulactory; worked in such a factor}, in that city 
and New York, until about 1 85 i , when he started a manufactory for himself in 
Cincinnati ; two or three years later was burnt out ;uul lost about six thousand 
dollars; went to CHnton, Mississippi, and became connectetl with a music store, a 
branch of a New Orleans house, and sold and tuned pianos. In 1856 he came to 
Minnesota, prospecting awhile, and in December of that year settled in .Saint 
Cloud. Here Mr. Evans opened a grocery and provision store; the ne.xt spring 
became a clerk in the United States land office; held it, and soon afterward the 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 2>77 

office of postmaster, until iS6i, when he was elected clerk of the district court and 
judge of probate. He was admitted to the bar on the 27th of October, 1866. The 
office of clerk he held twelve years, and that of judge continuously to the present 
time, except in 1876 and 1877, when he was dealing in land and filling the office 
of city justice. During the earlier days of his judgeship he was editor and pro- 
prietor of the Saint Cloud " Times " for several years. His term of office of judge 
of probate will expire on the 31st of December, 1879. 

Judge Evans was in the Minnesota house of representatives in 1865, and in 
the senate in 1867. While in the legislature he introduced and secured the pas- 
sage of some important bills, and rendered good service to his constituents. 

In November, 1872, while he was judge of probate, his office and all the papers 
were destroyed, and, by an act of the legislature, February, 1873, '""^ was author- 
ized to restore all the records, unlimited powers being granted him. It was a hard 
task, but he finally accomplished it. 

Mr. Evans has always acted with the democrats, and several years ago was 
their candidate for auditor of state, but with no expectation of being elected, Min- 
nesota then, as now, being strongly republican. He was the first mayor of Saint 
Cloud, and has held this office three or four terms. He was a member of the 
council three years, and its president all the time, making a good executive officer. 

Mr. Evans has been married since June, i87i,his wife being Mrs. Elizabeth 
U. Libbey, of Saint Cloud, daughter of Hon. John K. Damon, of Maine. She 
is a member of the Congregational church. 



JAMES A. GARVER, M. D., 

DODGE CENTRE. 

JAMES ALEXANDER GARVER, a settler in Dodge county while Minne- 
sota was a territory, and a physician and surgeon of e.xcellent reputation, is a 
native of Butler county, Ohio, being born at Hamilton, on the 19th of March, 
1 8 14. His father, Leonard Carver, was a millwright, and early taught his son the 
use of tools. The maiden name of his mother was Katharine Fisher. His grand- 
father and great-grandfather on both sides were in the revolutionary war, the latter 
at the opening, the former entering toward the close, not being old enough in 
1775-76. His maternal great-grandfather was a captain, and fought under Gen- 
eral Gates. 



/ 



3/8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Dr. Garver Iiad in Ix^N'hootl only \cr\" ordinary school jjri\ileges, but tlid much 
studyinj; in private; at twenty years of age (1834) commenced reading medicine 
with Ur. Arbuckle, of Millville, in his native county ; attended lectures at the 
Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, in 1839 and 1840; practiced in Hamilton until 
1852; four years in Noblesville, Indiana, and in 1856 came to Dodge county, Min- 
nesota, locating at Wasioja, remaining there until 1875, when he removed to his 
present home, five miles south ot Wasioja. He has always been in general prac- 
tice, and successful l)oth in medicine and surgery, doing most of the latter business 
in this part of the country, especially since the civil war. 

Just after the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, Dr. Garver became assistant-sur- 
o-eon of the 39th Indiana Inlantry; served in that position two years; resigned 
and returned to the north, intending to remain out of the service, but at the so- 
licitation of Governor Morton, accepted the position of surgeon of 136th Indiana, 
holding it until the war ended. He is a kind-hearted, self-sacrihcing man, and 
made an eminentl\- useful surgeon. The experience which he had in hospitals 
and on battle-fields has since been of great service to him, and increased his pro- 
fessional reputation. 

Dr. Garver seems to W\ lully aware that medical science has constant growth ; 
he aims to keep up with its progress, antl to this end goes to the east, now and 
then, and visits the hospitals and lecture-rooms ol the medical colleges, thus 
brushing up his knowledge of the healing art. 

Dr. Garver was reared in the democratic school of politics, and still adheres 
to it, bein<r ranked as a "war democrat" in i86i-6s. The Union has no firmer 
friend. 

In religion, he was brought up a Presbyterian ;' belonged to that church in 
Ohio antl Indiana, but, not being satisfied with the mode of baptism of that de- 
nomination, joined the liaptist church in 1873. '^^' '^ ^ conscientious, true man, 
living to do good in the world. 

He is a Royal Arch Mason ; has been m.ister of different lodges, in all fourteen 
or fifteen years, and was high priest ot the chaj^ter at one time while residing in 
Indiana. 

The wife of Dr. Garver was Miss Eliza C. Miller, a native of Butler county, 
Ohio; they were married at Millville, on the 9th of August, 1836, and have lost 
three children and have five living, all married but the youngest son, F"rank, who 
is a medical student. Helen A., the eldest daughter, is the wife of Hon. Wirt 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 379 

Westcott; Marj^ is the wife of Silas Hillman, and Emma is the wife of WilUam H. 

Vinton. WilHam A., the married son, and all the daughters, live in Dodge county. 

Dr. Garver lost his mother at Oxford, Ohio, about twenty years ago, and his 

father died at the son's house in Dodge county, in 1874, at a very advanced age. 



MELVILLE H. MANSON, M.D., 

SHAKOPEE. 

MELVILLE HARRLSON MANSON, son of George and Emeline (Meads) 
Manson, dates his birth at Limington, Maine, on the i6th of April, 1S36. 
His paternal great-grandfather was one of the pioneers whose a.x rang in the 
primeval forests of that state while it was yet a part of Massachusetts. Samuel 
Manson, grandfather of Melville, was also a forest-clearer, — and farmer, — the 
callino- also, of Georye Manson. Up to a recent date the Mansons were almost 
exclusively a race of agriculturists. 

Dr. Manson received his literary education at the Limington and Parsonfield 
seminaries, teaching at the same period a few terms, and advancing a year or more 
in a college course. He read medicine with Drs. Francis Warren, of Biddeford, 
and Moses Sweatt, of Limington ; attended, meanwhile, two courses of lectures 
in the medical department of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, and subsequently a 
third course, there receiving his diploma in 1863. 

■ The civil war was then raging at the south, and with a commission from the 
governor of Maine, in April of that year, he went directly into the army as assist- 
ant surgeon of 5th Maine Infantry, serving in that capacity till August, 1864. 

After spending between one and two years at his native home, in April, 1866, 
Dr. Manson "struck out" for a new home in the "Western Clearinofs," locating 
at Pine Bend, Dakota county, Minnesota, a town then of some if not "great 
expectations." After practicing there six or seven years, with a business which 
outstripped the growth of the town, he decided to select a larger and more prom- 
ising field, settling in Shakopee, Scott county, in October, 1873. Here he has 
built up an extensive business, and has a fine reputation for skill, both as a med- 
ical practitioner and surgeon. His rides extend in all directions from ten to fifteen 
miles. He is a careful reader of medical periodicals, and a progressive man, at- 
tending closely and exclusively to the duties of his profession. While in Dakota 



380 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

county he had more leisure time, and was chairman of the board of supervisors 
four years, acting also, about the same time, as a member and clerk ot the school 
board. Whatever Ijusiness he does is well done. 

Dr. Manson is a republican, a Master Mason, and a church-goer, worshiping 
with the Presbyterians. His moral standing is above reproach. 

Miss Lizzie L. Moody, of the Doctor's native town, became his wife on tiie 
1st of January, 1866, and they have two chiklren, — Kalrina, aged nine, <uul brank 
Melville, aged seven years. 



HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, 

w'lxnoM. 

CllRlSTOPllliR HOLMES .SMITH, late member of the Minnesota leg- 
islature, and a leading man in Cottonwood county, dates his birth at W es- 
ton, Windsor county, Vermont, July 14, 1834. His father, Stephen Smith, an 
attorney-at-law, was from the State of New York ; his mother, Sarah Glazier, 
belongctl to a pioneer family in \'ermont. liotli of his great-grandlalhers were 
participants in the successful struggle for independence. His grandlallicr, Chris- 
topher Smith, for whom he was named, was in the Plattsl)urgh camjiaign in 1S13-14. 

The subject of this notice received an academic education at Chester and 
Weston, in his nati\-e state, and Trumansburgh, Ohio, and farmed and taught tor 
ten years in Vermont, Ohio and Wisconsin, going to Bedford, Cuyahoga count)-, 
Ohio, in 1S54, ;ind to Richland county, Wisconsin, in April, 1856. He taught 
and farmed in the last named place till i860, when he was elected county clerk, 
holding the office two years, and immediately afterward the office of county treas- 
urer si.x years. The latter part of this time he was also in the real-estate busi- 
ness, continuing it till March, 1872, when he removed to Windom, Minnesota, 
his |)resent home. 

Windom is a young prairie town on the Saint Paul and .Sioux City railroad, 
owing its origin to that enterprise, and Mr. .Smith was one of the first settlers. 
The county seat was located here in November, 1872. 

.Since residing in Windom he has been engaged in buying and selling lands, 
being, however, almost constantly in some office. He has been treasurer of the 
county during the last six years, and was a member of the Minnesota house of 
representatives in 1877, and of the senate in 1878, — one session in each branch. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. -,Sl 



o' 



In the house he was chairman of the committee on rules, antl in the senate, on 
towns and counties. In the latter body he was on the railroad and education 
committees, and two or three others of minor importance, on all looking- well to 
the interests of the state. 

Mr. Smith is a republican in politics, and, as will be interred from the posi- 
tions which he has held, is a favorite of the party. In religious sentiment, he is 
a Universalist. 

He is a Royal Arch Mason ; was for four consecutive years master of Prudence 
Lodge, No. 97, at W'indom, and in December, 1878, was elected to that office for 
a fifth term. 

On the 8th of March, 1857, Miss Elizabeth Freeman, of Richland county, 
Wisconsin, was joined in marriage with Mr. Smith, and they have one child, Grace 
Elizabeth, aged eight years. 



REV. JAMES DOBBIN, A.M., 

FARIhWUL'j: 

JAMES DOBBIN, rector of Shattuck School, is of Scotch-Irish descent, both 
of his grandfathers, William Dobbin on the paternal and fohn Dobbin on the 
maternal side emisjrating to this countrv from the north of Ireland soon after 
the American revolution. Joseph Dobbin, the father of fames, was then in his 
boyhood. He is still living, being eighty years of age. His father died a few 
years ago in Washington county, New York, aged ninety-three years. In that 
county, in the town of .Salem, the subject of this sketch was born, on the 29th of 
June, 1833. The maiden name of his mother was Martha Dobbin. Joseph 
Dobbin was a farmer, and the son gave his time to agricultural pursuits until 
seventeen years old, attending a district school, as is the custom with farmers' 
sons, during the winters. At the age mentioned he entered the academy in his 
native town, and there and at Argyle prepared for college, entering Union in 
1856 and graduating three years later. Prior to entering college he taught two 
years at Argyle ; on receiving his diploma in 1859 came to Faribault, taught here 
one year in a parochial school with the Rev. J. L. Breck, D.D.; returned to New 
York and taught another year at Argyle, and three years at Union Village, in his 
native county, supporting himself entirely while pursuing his literary and theo- 
logical studies. 

4-1 



J 



S2 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



In 1864 Mr. Dobbin returned to Faribault, commenced his theological studies, 
and was ordained to the diaconate in June, 1867. Meantime, two months before 
this (late, he had become rector of Shattuck School, and entered upon those 
labors wliich he has continued with great assiduity and marked success to the 
present time. He has all the qualifications of a first-class disciplinarian, and it 
was a fortunate thing for the school when it was placed in his charge. 

In 1865, five years after the " Bishop Seabury Mission" was incorporated at 
Faribault, the trustees organized an academic department in accordance with the 

■t" 

provisions of their charter, under the name of Shattuck School, so called in 
honor of Ur. George C. Shattuck, of Boston, Massachusetts, a liberal contributor 
to the missionary and educational work of Bishop Whipple. The site consists of 
high and sightly grounds on the east side of the Straight river, overlooking the 
city, and was a dense forest twelve years ago. This has in part been cleared, 
the ofrounds have been laid out and beautified, and two large stone halls, each 
three stories above the basement, a two-story frame building, a gymnasium, and 
the neat little Memorial Chapel of the Good Shepherd, erected by the generosity 
of Mrs. Augusta M. Shumway, of Chicago, have all been built in the last dozen 
years, or since Mr. Dobbin became the rector ol the school. The money for the 
three school buildings was largely contributed by friends of the enterprise, but 
the school itself has been self-supporting Irom the start, it not being an uncom- 
mon thing to turn off applicants for want of accommodations. 

We make a few extracts from the catalogue of the school for 1878, showing 
the primary object of the school, its internal arrangements, its peculiar features, 
its course ol study, etc.: 

The primary object of this organization was the preparation of boys and young men for the 
study of theology. It is intended by the endowment of scholarships to make provision to assist per- 
sons who have requisite qualifications, and who need aid while pursuing their preparatory studies. 
The same instruction and discipline, and domestic and religious influences, are extended to all others 
of proper character and aims to enter a christian school. And the good faith of the trustees and 
officers of the institution is pledged to everything that a liberal patronage and provision for thorough 
teaching and a high grade of scholarship and discipline can do to prepare boys, by a christian edu- 
cation, either for business or for a professional life. The Rector and the teachers reside in the school, 
and, with the matrons and all the members of the school, constitute one family. As such, all meet 
in one common dining-room, and daily unite in morning and evening prayer in the chapel. At stated 
periods they meet the ladies of tlie household and invited guests, socially, in the parlors of the scliool. 
The aim is to place each cadet, as far as possible, under the wholesome influence and restraint of a 
christian family, and by constant intercourse and oversight, and definite religious instruction, to de- 
velop a positive christian character, and to instill the ))rinciples of a well regulated and \irtuous life. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 383 

The course of study is arranged for two departments. It is with a view of taking boys at ten 
or twelve years of age and preparing them thoroughly for the sophomore class in the best colleges, 
or for a practical business life. The time required for the preparatory department will depend on 
the age and advancement of the cadet when admitted. This completed, there is a four years' course 
for graduation. It embraces two distinct lines of study — the English or scientific and the classical. 
The former includes for graduation the Latin of the first two years, but substitutes German for Greek 
throughout the course. Cadets will be admitted to any class for which they are found, on examina- 
tion, to be prepared. They must pursue all the studies of that class. Should the Rector deem it 
necessary for any one's proper standing, or for his more rapid promotion, private lessons will be given 
at an extra charge. 

It is believed by those in charge of the institution, after several years' trial, that there is no way 
in which recreation and physical culture can be so well directed, and made effective, as under the eye 
of an efficient officer in drill and parade. It gives precision and promptness of obedience, and an 
attention to rule and good order seldom attained by any other system. This department is in charge 
of a resident officer of the United States army. The cadet officers are appointed by the commandant, 
subject to the approval of the Rector, first, on the ground of their attention to military and school 
duties, and secondly, of their gentlemanly bearing and behavior. The commissions are handsomely 
printed, and duly countersigned by the Rector and commandant. The appointments hold so long as 
the officer is efficient and conscientious in the duties required of hini and his influence is believed 
to be good over the school. Failing in either of these, he is reduced to the ranks, and is required to 
surrender his commission. The loss of ten conduct-marks by misconduct or inattention to duty 
also deprives an officer of his commission. The department has provided the cadets with an ample 
supply of cadet muskets, swords for officers, etc., with all the equipments. The muskets weigh a 
little over seven pounds. No one able to drill is excused from it. Each cadet is held personally 
responsible for the arms assigned to him. An excellent drum corps is attached to the battalion. 

A rule of the school forbids the possession or use of fije-arms. 
******** 

The discipline of the school is semi-military. All rules and regulations, except such- as are 
purely military, are imposed by the Rector. The cadet officers of the battalion are made responsible 
for their enforcement. The coinmissioned officers are detailed in rotation as officers of the day. 
During his term of duty the officer of the day is responsible, together with his sergeant and corporal 
of the guard, for the maintenance of good order and the observance of all the regulations of the 
school. In case of disorder, or of any known or suspected violation of the rules, it is the duty of 
the officers to report the same. These reports are made regularly each day in writing, through the 
commandant, and the penalties are assigned, in all cases, by the Rector. In this way all hasty, unjust 
and discriminating punishments are avoided, and the discipline is made, in its truest sense, corrective. 
A record of all delinquencies and punishments is preserved, and is furnished to parents on request. 
So far as the various faults and dispositions of cadets will allow, these are uniform, and consist in 
the performance of extra drill and study, the loss of holidays and pocket-money, confinement to 
close bounds, demerits, etc. 

The rector of this school has especial fitness for his work. To splendid schol- 
arship and a refined taste are added a demeanor that is dignified yet not stiff, and 
a firmness of discipline which is unbending, yet coupled with ease of manners and 
a cordiality which wins all hearts. His influence on the students is softening, 
refining, elevating. He is a christian gentleman of the noblest class. 



384 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

The Rector has a second wife. His first was Miss Hannah I. Leigh, daughter 
of Jesse S. Leigh, of Argyle, New York ; married on the 12th of December, i860. 
She died on the 29th of December, 1865, leaving one daughter, Jessie. His pres- 
ent wife was Elizabeth L. Ames, of Niles, Michigan ; they were marrieil on the 
8th of April, 1873, and have one son, Edward Savage. 



CAPTAIN HENRY D. STOCKER, 

LAKE CI TV. 

ON the 23d of June, 1836, in the town of Cabot, Caledonia county, Vermont, 
was born the subject of this brief sketch, Henry Davis .Stocker. He is son 
oi .Samuel Stocker, a Methodist Episcopal minister, and the maiden name of his 
mother was Harriet Jane Davis. Of the genealogical history of his family we are 
unable to give any particulars, owing to the absence of any old family records. 
He is, however, descended from a German family which settled in this country at 
an early day. 

When ot projjer age, Henry attended first a district school and afti-rward a 
graded school at Lowell, Massachusetts; later spent a short time at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, and moved thence with his parents to McHenry county, Illinois. 
There, in 1858. he began his legal stutlies in the office of Messrs. Joslyn and 
Hanchett, a prominent law firm of Woodstock, the seat of justice of McHenr\' 
county. There ami at McHenry, in the same county, Mr. Stocker spent three 
years pursuing his legal studies. In 1 861, when the civil war broke out, he en- 
listed in the service of his country, and with Mr. Hanchett, one of his former 
tutors, raised a company which was assigned to the i6th Illinois Cavalry. Han- 
chett was commissioned captain and our subject first lieutenant, but soon after 
going south the former was assigned to the duties of judge advocate and the 
latter assumed command of the company, retaining it up to the battle of Jones- 
\ille, \ irginia, on the 3d of January, 1864, where he, with his whole company, was 
made prisoner of war. In this battle Lieutenant Stocker had liccn so severely 
wounded, receiving two sabre-cuts on his head and two bullets in his body, that 
he could not be removed with his comrades, and was left at a house near by, 
where he remained for two months. During his convalescence he became con- 
vinced that the family with whom he hatl been left were not wholly without sym- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 385 

path)- for the Union cause; this fact encouraged him to plan an escape, which, 
with the aid of some negroes, he was enabled to carry into effect and get through 
the rebel lines in discruise. This was a memorable incident in the life of our sub- 
ject, and will occupy a prominent place in his memory as long as he lives ; it was 
a bold strike for freedom, and surrounded by dangers the excitement of which 
enabled him to bear the hardships which, in his disabled and exhausted condition, 
would otherwise have forced him to remain inactive. Reaching the Cumberland 
river in safety, he floated down that stream until he deemed himself at a sufficient 
distance from the rebel lines to attempt to cross the country, when he made the 
best of his way to the federal army. There he was placed upon the staff of Gen- 
eral Schofield, with the rank of captain ; was soon afterward made assistant 
provost-marshal, which position he held until December, 1864, when, on account 
of the trouble which his unhealed wounds caused him, he was reluctantly com- 
pelled to accept an honorable discharge. 

Captain Stocker came almost directly to Lake City, Minnesota, where he has 
since been engaged in the practice of law, having been admitted to the bar in 
1866. He is a capable lawyer, and is highly spoken of by his bar associates. 

Mr. Stocker has alwa)'S conscientiously assimilated with the republican party 
in politics, but confines his whole energies to the practice of his profession, to the 
exclusion of everything political except voting. 

He is a Master Mason, and a member of Hope Chapter, No. 12, and Lake City 
Commandery, No. 6, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 



COLONEL JAMES GEORGE, 

ROCHESTER. 

JAMES GEORGE was born on the 27th of May, 1819, in Alexandria, Jeffer- 
son county. New York, and was the first white child born in that town. His 
father was Moses George, from New Hampshire, and his mother was from East 
Fairlee, Orange county, Vermont, her maiden name being Mary Banfield. The 
father died at Watertown, New York, in July, 1828, and the mother at La Farge- 
ville, New York, in 1848. 

James was educated partly in the school of Hon. Wm. Ruger, at Watertown, 
and partly by his uncle and guardian, Daniel George, who lost his life in the 



386 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Canadian rebellion of 1838. He left school in 1835 and commenced teaching; 
came west in the autumn of 1837 ; taught school and traveled through Wisconsin, 
Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi and Louisiana, finally locating in Butler county, Ohio, 
in September, 1838, and taught common and select schools until 1842. He read 
law and was admitted to the bar of Ohio in May, 1S44. He was recorder of 
Butler county in October, 1844. 

In May, 1846, he volunteered in a Butler county company (2d Rifie, ist Ohio 
Volunteers), for the Mexican war; was elected first lieutenant, the late Hon. John 
B. Neller beingcaptain ; he was elected captain upon Neller's promotion to lieu- 
tenant-colonel. While he was in command of the company he was wounded in 
the battle of Monterey, on the 21st of September, 1846. 

Captain George was a clerk in the legislature of Ohio in the sessions of 1848- 
49 and 1S49-50; was elected secretary of the board of public works of Ohio in 
1850, and served until 1854, when he resigned to come to Olmsted county, Min- 
nesota. Here he preempted a" claim of one hundred and sixty acres with the 
land-warrant obtained for services in the Mexican war. That claim is yet his home. 

He practiced law until 1861, in June of which year he volunteered, and was 
elected captain of company C, 2d regiment Minnesota Volunteers; on the 23d 
of July was commissioned lieutenant-colonel; was in the battles of Mill Spring, 
on the 19th of January, 1862, and for meritorious conduct there received the 
special commendation of his brigade commander (General McCook) and was 
recommended for brevet promotion. The Colonel commanded the gallant 2d 
Minnesota in several minor engagements, and through the two days' battle of 
Chickamauga. He lost forty per cent of his men in that battle, all of whom were 
killed or wounded ; was among the first in the fight on the first day, and was of 
the rear guard leaving the field at the close of the second day, being under the 
immediate command of General Thomas. The Colonel received three slight 
wounds in that battle, and made a brilliant military record. He is the officer 
referred to in Barnes' ".School History" as promising General Thomas "to hold 
his position until his regiment is mustered out of service," — a promise based 
solely, as he says, upon the absolute reliability of his regiment under any and all 
circumstances. 

Colonel George has served four years as justice of the city of Rochester. He 
never belonged to any church ; believes firmly in the substantial tenets of the 
christian religion, but that the future status and condition of mankind are wholly 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 38;^ 

unknown to us here, consequently dissenting from extremists on eitlier side, and 
claiming that the future is in the hands of the Supreme alone, and that It will be 
right in any event. 

In politics, the Colonel has always been a democrat, but not a secessionist. 
He was the candidate for congress on the Douglas ticket in i860, and was the 
democratic candidate, before the legislature, in 1865, for United States senator. 

He married, in March, 1842, Miss R. S. Pearce, of Preble county, Ohio, who 
is yet living. They have three children and nine grandchildren living. 



JAMES D. McCOMB, 

STILLWATER. 

THE subject of this brief biographical notice is of Scotch-Irish descent, his 
oreat-orandfather coming from Ireland and settling in Pennsylvania. In 
Washington county, that state, James Dickey McComb was born, on the 13th of 
February, 1827. His father was Robert McComb, who had, in the course of his 
life, various occupations — milling, farming, wool-carding, etc. His mother, before 
her marriage, was Isabella Chedister. Some of his uncles on the father's side were 
in the war of 181 2-15. 

In 1 841 Robert McComb moved his family to Fort Madison, Iowa, where 
James attended a private school a short time, farmed awhile and clerked for 
Charles Brewster. 

In 1845 young McComb spent a few months at Copperas Creek, on the Illi- 
nois river, and in the spring of 1846 came to Stillwater in company with John H. 
Brewster, tor whose cousin he here clerked one year. He then formed a partner- 
ship with Robert Simpson, and James S. Anderson, building the three-story stone 
store on the corner of Main and Myrtle streets, and there trading until 1858. 

Mr. McComb was a clerk ten years in the office of the surveyor-general of logs 
and lumber first district, then held the office himself four years. Since that time 
he has been with his successor in the same office, having a half-interest till quite 
recenth' in its proceeds. He has been connected in some way with the office for 
eighteen years, working for the last two years as a salaried man. He is a faithful 
and true man, as regular as the return of day and night, and has a host of friends. 

Mr. McComb was deputy-sheriff of Saint Croix county, Wisconsin Territory, 



-88 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



o 



at an early clay, when its southern boundary extended to the Iowa line ami its 
northern U-> the British Possessions, having; that office two or three years. At a 
later period he served as city clerk one or two terms. 

Mr. McComb was a whig while there was such a jnirty, and has since been a 
republican, formerly very active, and still c]uite inlluential. He has passed all the 
chairs in Odd-Fellowship. 

His wife was Eliza |. McKusick, of Stillwater; marri('d on the; 4lh of March, 
1854. They have four children and have lost two, — names of the living: Charles 
F., Mamie A., Edgar J., and Carrie Belle. 



GEORGE PATTON, 

LAKE CITT. 

THE subject of the following sketch is a nati\c of the ' Keystone State," and 
was born in the city of Philadelphia, on the 24th of August, 1802. He was 
the only child of George Patton, senior, a professional and successful teacher for 
twenty-eight years, and Jane Humphreys, his wife. When George was in his 
ninth year he was deprived of the loving guidance of a mother's hand, and had a 
truly providential escape from death himself At that time the family were resid- 
ing; at Williamsport, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania: one morning before day- 
light his mother left home in the stage for Pennsborough, and, while fording a 
swollen tributary of the Susquehanna river, the stage, with its only occupant, was 
swept tlown the stream and lost. Her son was to have accompanied her, but 
happening to fall down and soil his clothes, just as they were about to enter the 
stage, he was sorrowfully left behind. Surely 

"There's a divinity which shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them as we may." 

In his fifteenth year our subject entertnl the store of Robert McClelland, Lew- 
istown, Mifflin coimt\-, Pennsylvania: remaini'd in this place five years, ami thcMi 
accepted a situation in the store of James Kellogg, in tlie same town ; remained 
in the employ of Mr. Kellogg nine years, hax'ing in the meantime married his 
eldest daughter. 

In 1831 Mr. Patton engaged in the mercantile business on his own accoiml in 
Allenville, Mifflin county, where he laid the foundations of his subsequent i)ros- 
perous career. In May, 1846, having secured a comfortable competence, and an 





:^^^^^^^^ 



Snf'irSSMaiASBT^USB-clarSe^T 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAFHICAL DICTIONARY. 39 1 

addition of six sons and one daughter to his family, he decided to remove to Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, where his children could enjoy improved educational facilities, and 
during nine years' residence in that city he did all in his power to add to their in- 
tellectual advancement and improvement, engaging in no business. 

In May, 1855, impaired health induced him to travel through the northwestern 
states. After a tour of several weeks, chiefly through Iowa, Wisconsin, and the 
Territory of Minnesota, he returned to Cincinnati, highly impressed with the 
climate, scenery, and future prospects of the latter. Selecting Winona, Minnesota, 
as the site of his new home, he removed thither with his family (except James E., 
who was then a merchant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Georoe R., then the resi- 
dent surgeon to Saint John's Hospital, Cincinnati,) in July, 1855. 

During the winter of 1855-56 Mr. Patton was informed by Benjamin C. Bald- 
win and Abner Tibbitts that they were about to survey a town site on the Min- 
nesota side of Lake Pepin, on land claimed by Samuel Doughty and Abner 
Dwelle, as soon as navigation opened, and invited him to visit the location ; he 
did so, and was delighted by the beauty of the present site of Lake City ; to as- 
certain its natural advantages, and the country tributary, he made a trip on foot, 
accompanied by his son-in-law, the Rev. Silas Hazlett. They traveled through 
the Sioux reservation, which was then an unbroken prairie as far as Mazeppa, 
where they remained over night ; the second night they spent at the house of one 
Ira O. Seely. Becoming satisfied with the natural advantages of the location for 
a town, Mr. Patton made a proposition to the claimants of the site for certain 
proprietary interests, which were acceded to. Returning to Winona, he, with his 
famil}', removed to Lake City in May, 1856. They arrived at their destination in 
the night and during a severe storm ; as he expresses it, they were hastily dumped 
upon the shore from the steamer, with their 'nousehold effects and stock, the latter 
consisting of one cow, to be transported to a shanty near the landing, which was the 
only shelter procurable ; on reaching it and finding the floor soaked with the rain, 
and having to put up a stove, cook supper, and arrange bedding on the wet floor, 
they experienced a literal realization of pioneer life. Mr. Patton desired to build, 
but it was no easy matter to do so, in this embryotic town, at that early day ; all 
supplies, even lumber, had to be secured abroad, and a day-laborer could not be 
had ; he however persuaded one A. V. Sigler, who is still a resident of Lake City, 
to bring a raft of lumber from the Saint Croix river; after getting the lumber he 
erected a kiln to dry it, then he fortunately procured the services of a good car- 

4.S 



392 THE UN/TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

penter named E. M. Rider, a very worthy man, to work for him, who l)iiilt the 
house now occupied l)y tlu: family ; doors, sash, hardware, paints, etc.. liad to be 
l)roui;ht from Duhutiuc, Iowa; no (|uarries were opened, and stone had to be pried 
loose with crowbars and rolled down the bluffs; the cellar wall was built by one 
Seth Disdale, and, in order to hurry the completion of the house before winter set 
in, Mr. Patton attended him personally, making mortar, painting, and doing all 
kinds of manual labor, and by November the building was advanced sufficiently 
for occupancy. 

The following spring a store was built, and occupied b)- Mr. Patton and .Son 
until 1872, when they erected the store which they now occupy. Lake City was 
at that time rather an isolated place, and, with but few exceptions, steamboats 
were not willing to land there. Mr. Patton, however, was satisfied that the future 
would justify him in l)uilding, though the title to the reservation was not at that 
time settled, and the outccjme has fully attested his good judgment. New settlers 
soon came in quite rapidly, and by the first fall quite a goodly number of people 
had gathered there. Soon after Mr. Patton's advent. Judge Stout and H. F. Will- 
iamson arrived, the latter with a small stock of goods; at present they still reside 
there. 

Since coming to Minnesota our subject has been engaged in the mercantile 
business; is eminently content with his success and life here, and thinks it has 
been the means of lengthening his da)'s. Three of his sons, all W(;ll-to-do in lite, 
also reside with their iamilies at Lake City. Mis other son, the eldest, has resided 
for the last twenty-four years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, being a prosperous and 
wealthy merchant and manufacturer there. 

Few men are more deserving of being called selt-made than Mr. Patton. Cer- 
tainly he has been the architect of his own fortune, having received no outside 
assistance ; and not onl\ has his lite been a success financially, but he has also won 
the love, respect and esteem ol a large circle of friends and acquaintances. 

Eliza Kellogg, his wife, was born at Phmoulh, near New Ha\(-n, Connc^cticut, 
on the I 2th of August, 1808. In 1821 her father and family removed to Lewis- 
town, Penns\lvania, where she resided until after her marriage. Her father, James 
Kellogg, was quite wealthy for tho.se days, and was instrumental in building the 
Episcopal church at Lewistown, in which his daughter and Mr. Patton were mar- 
ried,- it still stands, an elegaat structure and a monument to his munificence. 

After fifty years of wedded life Mr. Patton and wife celebrated their golden 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 393 

weddincr on the 31st of December, 1878, and, in closing this brief memoir, we 
tliink it fitting" to add a few extracts from a newspaper account of that happy 
event : 

The wedding chimes that rang out ro merrily in unison with the joys and hopes of EHza 
Kellogg and George Patton fifty years ago, in the sequestered village of Lewistown, Pennsylvania, 
and annually clanged their weird echoes to those whose destinies were then happily interwoven, burst 
forth anew in the celebration of one of the most pensive, tender and holiest occasions that can occur 
in the life of any person, a golden wedding. 

On Tuesday, toward the close of the last day of the expiring year of 1878, the persons above 
named, in the parlor of their pleasant residence in Lake City, in the presence of children, grand- 
children and friends, who with themselves rejoiced in their prosperity and wonderful escape from 
many of the tearful ills that flesh is heir to, feelingly exchanged the sacred sentiment so confidently 
given in the long, long ago, when existence was but a charming dream and its realities failed to cast 
dark shadows for them. A short address was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Wyckoff, and a poem com- 
posed and read by the Rev. Mr. Fisk. 

Among other good things Mr. Wyckoff said, addressing the bride and groom ; 

" Permit me, in behalf of the citizens of Lake City, together with all your kindred and loved 
ones here gathered, to express to you, upon this rare and happy occasion, their and our most sincere 
and hearty congratulations. 

" Fifty years of wedded life ! What a boon to mortals, having their existence where 

'"Dangers stand thick thro' all the land. 
To hurry mortals home ; 
And fierce diseases wait around. 
To push them to the tomb.' 
* * * * * * % » 

"You may be assured, honored and venerated friends, that it gives us very great pleasure to know 
tlial you have been dwelling amid and gleaning from this rich harvest for Fifty Years; and be 
assured, also, that we esteem it an honor and an high privilege now to congratulate you upon this happy 
occasion, when you stand before us with these dear ones as so many golden sheaves around you. 

" Doubtless you have found the thorn and the briar here and there, but you have, nevertheless, 
stored well the garner with goodly wheat. The prick of the briar and the sting of the thorn you 
now forget. 

" Here are your children to the fourth generation, honored, respected and prospered of heaven. 
To stand as you do at this hour, the parents, the grand- and great-grandparents of such a group, is 
the lot of few, and an honor which I am sure you appreciate and highly esteem. 

"All the living (with one exception) are with you to-day, gladly doing you this honor and happily 
and joyfully sharing these chaste and proper festivities. Three are not, for God has taken them, yet 
living and happy representatives of two of them are with you — how dear they are! — and may we not 
think that the ministering angel of the little five-year-old may also be here on soft and silent wings .^ 
Be this as it may, the tender memory of him, doubtless, you fondly cherish. So we may say, 'All are 
here.' 

" For these your loving hearts and willing hands have planned and toiled. Heaven's benediction 
has attended and crowned those plans and toils with a goodly measure of success. Hand in hand 
you have been climbing life's rugged way, and now, upon yo\ix Fiftieth Anniversary, you stand side by 
side u|)on this beautiful and very pleasant eminence to which God has led you. 

" Here you may pause for a little time and view the landscape o'er. In the retrospect, doubtless, 



394 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

many very interesting, instructive and pleasant reminiscences rise before you. As you wander back 
along that path you iiave trodden, how many tilings you can recall with deep, and some with even 
thrilling, interest. 

"Not only the past, with all its interest, comes before you from this pleasant outlook, but also the 
present. With what projjer pride and high satisfaction it must be to you, as you now stand under 
your own comfortable and pleasant roof-tree, with tiiis goodly measure of healtii and vigor, sur- 
rounded with a plenitude of the good things of this life, respected, honored, and highly esteemed 
by the citizens of tliis young city you helped to found, together with the people of this common- 
wealth. And iiere are gathered around you those dear ones, whom it is your honor and your joy to 
call your own, in like condition. Surely, happy is the man who is in such a case I 

"It now only remains to turn your eye to the rest of the journey, 'What shall its harvest be.'" 
Only a few more months or years shall roll on their silent, tireless wheels. 

" May the descending grade be gentle, the silvery sun soft and golden, your journey pleasant and 

peaceful, your last pillow downy, and when your sun is set, and the twilight comes on, may the blue 

arch over you be brightly sprinkled with 'the shining dust of His way,' fit symbol of those crowns 

of glory which may God place upon your redeemed and glorified brows." 

* * * * ** * * 

The reception lasted from two to six in the afternoon, and was largely attended by those from 
both city and country, who showered the venerable host and hostess with warmest congratulations, and 
regaled themselves with the elegant collation of most everything tiiat culinary skill and the products 
of the tropics could suggest. Invitations to the festive occasion had been given through the news- 
papers, so that no friend, however slightly associated, should be omitted through inadvertence; and 
a noticeable feature in it was that, in the invitation, gifts were respectfully declined in advance. 

In the evening a family reunion was held, when many valuable golden-hued presents were made, 
but the details of which are not for the public gaze. There were in attendance, except Dr. E. A. 
Patton, of Cincinnati, all the descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Patton, viz: James E. Patton, of Mil- 
waukee; Dr. (r. R. Patton, H. T. Patton and Nate Patton, of Lake City, their wives and children; 
the children of their deceased son, Aug. M. Patton; Mary J. McLean, only child of their deceased 
daughter Eliza J. Hazlett, and Eliza McLean, their great-granddaughter. 



COLONEL WILLIAM H. H. TAYLOR, 

SAINT PAUL. 

WILLIA.M HENRY HARRISON TAYLOR is a grandson of John Tay- 
lor, who came from Scotland prior to the American revolution, and settled 
in Hanover county, X'irginia, and son of Thomas Taylor, a merchant, of Rich- 
mond, X'irginia, where the subject of this sketch was born, on the 2Sth ot 
November, 1813. The maiden name of his mother was Lucy Singleton. .She 
was a daughter of Anthony -Singleton, who was a captain of artillery in the revo- 
lutionary war, and her mother was Elizabeth Harrison, daughter of Benjamin 
Harrison, of Berkley, Virginia, one of the signers of the declaration of independ- 
ence, and sister of President Harrison. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 395 

William was educated in Richmond academies ; clerked several years in a 
dry-goods house there, and afterward managed the Black Heath coal mines in 
Chesterfield county, Virginia. In 1835 he settled in Cincinnati, Ohio ; two years 
later became chief clerk in the clerk's office of Hamilton county, under his uncle, 
General William Henry Harrison, serving in that capacity until 1841, when Gen- 
eral Harrison became President, and Mr. Taylor one of his private secretaries. 

On the demise of the President, in 1841, Mr. Taylor was appointed postmas- 
ter of Cincinnati by President Tyler; held the office until 1845, when, being 
turned out by President Polk, he retired to the old homestead of President Har- 
rison, at North Bend, Ohio, where he farmed until 1S58, when the log cabin of 
1840 notoriety was reduced to ashes. At the Qpening of the year just mentioned 
he entered the office of the clerk of Hamilton county once more ; served as dep- 
uty until January, 1861, when he was made chief deputy in the sheriff's office of 
the same county, and there remained only six months, exchanging civil for mili- 
tary duties. 

In July, 1861, he entered the Union army as colonel of the 5th Ohio Cavalry, 

and from December, 1862, to August, 1863, by appointment of President Grant, 

was president of the military commission of west Tennessee. At the close oi his 

services in this capacity the bar of Memphis passed the following resolution : 

We have witnessed with pleasure the fairness and inipartiahty with which you liave administered 
the duties of your high office, and freely testify that you have been guided by a sense of justice to all, 
enforcing the law when demanded by the public exigency, while at the same time you have shown a 
regard for the constitutional rights of the citizens, alike honorable to your head and heart. 

On account of ill health Colonel Taylor resigned his position, his resignation 
beinof dated August 11, iS6^. Returnino- to Ohio, we see him once more at the 
old North Bend farm. 

In 1866 he was appointed by President Johnson postmaster of Cincinnati, but 
rejected by the senate on false charges made by Ben. Eggleston — charges of dis- 
loyalty to his country. 

In 1867 Colonel Taylor came to Minnesota in pursuit of health; settled on 
a farm in Brooklyn, Hennepin county, where he was residing when, in 1871, Gov- 
ernor Austin appointed him a commissioner-at-large for Hennepin county, he 
holding that office about six months. In August, 1877, he was appointed state 
librarian by Governor Pillsbury, and still holds the office. 

He is a member of the Presbyterian chinxh, has lived an unblemished life, 
and is a pure, kind-hearted, hospitable gentleman of the olden noble type. 



396 THE UNITKD STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Colonel Taylor was married on tin- 22d of June, 1836, to Miss Anna Tiithill 
Harrison, youngest daughter of President Harrison. They have had twelve chil- 
dren, and ten of them are still living. All are married except one son, Edward 
Evertt, a farmer in Minnesota, and two daughters, Bessie Short and Virginia Berk- 
ley. Captain W. H. H. Taylor, junior, is a farmer in Minnesota ; Captain John T. 
Taylor, who was on Cieneral Sherman's staff in 1861-63, is a traveling salesman, 
living in Bloomington, Illinois; Lucy Singleton is the wife of H. Scott Howell, 
of Keokuk, Iowa; Anna Cleves is the wife of George H. Comstock, of the same 
[ilace ; Mary Thornton is the wife of George A. Plummer, of Brooklyn, Minne- 
sota ; Fanny Gait is the wife of Charles F. Hendryx, of Minneapolis, and Jane 
Harrison is the wife of Edward J. Davenport, of the same place. 



HON. THOMAS SIMPSON, 

WINONA. 

TH P2 subject ol this brief memoir is of Scotch parentage, of Lanark, though 
born in Yorkshire, England, on the 31st of May, 1836. His parents, An- 
thony and Elizabeth Bonson Simpson, emigrated to America when Thomas, the 
fourth child in a family of five children, was quite young, settling in Dubuque 
county, Iowa. Thomas was educated in the common schools of that place, and 
aided his father, who was a miner, smelter and agriculturist, having a farm at 
Pilot Grove, nine miles from the city of Dubucjue, long known as the " Pilot 
Grove Farm." 

Thomas studied engineering and surveying with P2. S. Norris, of Dubutjue, 
and, after considerable experience in the field, took of the United States govern- 
ment the contract for running the meridian and parallel lines in Minnesota Ter- 
ritory, stretching, in fact, the first government chain in this commonwealth. He 
was engaged in government surveys from 1S53 to 1S56, a period ot about three 
years, and on the ist of January, 1856, settled in Winona. 

Here Mr. Simpson opened an office for the sale of land-warrants and the loan- 
ing of mnn(;y, and resumed law studies, whicli he had commenced three or tour 
years betore and had continued at intervals of leisure. In 1858 he was admitted 
to the bar at Winona, forming a law partnershi]) with Judge Abner Lewis, the 
firm being Lewis and Simpson, and has been in practice ever since, doing, also, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 397 

considerable business in the line of real estate and money loaning, being quite a 
successful operator. He is at present the senior member of the law firm of Simp- 
son and Wilson, the latter, George P. Wilson, being attorney-general of the state. 

Mr. Simpson was one of the organizers of the Second National Bank of Wino- 
na, was its president for seven years, and is still one of its principal owners. He 
was one of the originators and original owners of the Winona, Trempeleau and 
Prescott railroad, the link between La Crosse and Winona, being a director of 
the same for several years. The road is now owned and operated by the Chicao-o 
and Northwestern Railway Company. He is secretary of the Winona and South- 
western Railway Company, whose road, when completed, will connect Winona 
with central and western Iowa. 

Mr. Simpson is one of the stockholders of the Winona Carriage Works, an 
extensive and highly important manufactory, and he has been for two years past 
president of the corporation. There is hardly an interest of the least consequence 
to Winona with which Mr. Simpson has not been identified, and a foremost man 
in pushing it forward. 

He was the first president of the board of education organized in Winona, 
holding that office for a number of years, and has been at the head of the State 
Normal School board since the death of Dr. Ford (the first president), in 1867. 
Few men in the state have been more active in educational matters than Mr. 
Simpson. 

He was elected justice of the peace in 1857 and served two years, and subse- 
quently held other offices in the municipality of the city. 

He was in the state senate in 1866 and 1867, and secured the passage of the 
bill for the first apportionment for erection of the normal-school buildino- at 
Winona. While in the legislature he was chairman of the committees on federal 
relations and claims, and on the committees on railroads and the judiciary. His 
sounil judgment and thorough business habits made him a very useftd member 
of the legislature. 

Mr. Simpson was a Douglas democrat until the civil war burst upon the nation 
in the spring of i86i,and has since affiliated with the republicans. He was a dele- 
gate to the republican national convention in 1864 at Baltimore, Maryland, and 
chairman of the Minnesota delegation, — the convention which renominated Mr. 
Lincoln, — and four years later was a delegate to the convention which nominated 
General Grant. During the four years intervening between these conventions 



398 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Simpson was the Minnesota member of the national rcpubhcan executive 
committee, and was an efficient worker in the interests of his party. 

He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since youth; su- 
|)crintendcnt of llic Sunday-school at Winona for the last twenty-three years, and 
is a live man in every good cause. The moral as well as material interests of his 
adopted home lie very near his heart. 

On the 30th of October, i860, Miss Maggie Holstcin.of Lewisburgh, Pennsyl- 
vania, became the wife of Mr. Simpson, and they have three boys, George T., 
James K. and Earle S., all attending the model schools of Winona, preparatory 
to the normal school. 



REV. EDWIN C. SANDERS. 

LE SUEUR. 

AMONG the early preachers in the Minnesota valley was Edwin Curtis San- 
1- tiers, pastor of the Baptist church at Lc Sueur. His parents were James 
and Anna (Wiley) Sanders, who belong to the agricultural class, living, at the 
time of his birth, in the town of Ashford, Cattaraugus county. New York. His 
maternal great-grandfather was a soldier in " the times which tried men's souls," 
and aiiled in gaining the independence of the colonies. Edwin spent his boy- 
hood and youth on the farm three miles from Springville, Erie county, where he 
received an academic education and prepared for college, teaching district schools 
meanwhile, antl subsequenth' in all ti\e winters. He was converted at the age of 
seventeen, and, feeling that he had a call to preach, studied theology in private 
with Rev. E. W. Clarke, of Arcade, New York; commenced preaching while thus 
studying, at twenty years of age, having previously intended to take a thorough 
college course, but was prevented by failing health; early in 1852 went to Wis- 
consin and spent two years or more among relatives, trying to regain his health ; 
and in 1S54 it was so much improved that he ventured to assume the pastorate of 
the Baptist church just formed at Oshkosh. There he labored two years, and 
during his ministry the young church was much enlarged. 

In June, 1856, Mr. Sanders came to Le Sueur, hoping to strengthen his 
constitution by doing out-door work ; soon afterward purchased a farm and 
immediately commencetl iuiproving it, beginning to preach before he had made 
his purchase. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 399 

In 1858 a Baptist church was formed, — a meeting-house was built (the first in 
Le Sueur) and Mr. Sanders was pastor until after the civil war began. 

In August, 1862, he became captain of company G, loth Minnesota Infantry, 
which was engaged the first year in fighting the Sioux Indians on the frontier. 
Captain Sanders was wounded in the battle at New Ulm, and in the official report 
of that battle, made by Colonel Flandrau, Captain S. was commended for cool- 
ness and courage on the occasion. In 1863 the regiment went to the south, and 
was there in the service two more years. Captain Sanders was promoted to major 
in the early part of 1865; was in several battles on southern soil (Tupelo and 
Oxford, Mississippi; Nashville, Tennessee; .Spanish Fort, Alabama, and others), 
but received no injury. While captain he was in command of the regiment a 
short time, and while major for a few months. 

Major Sanders returned to Minnesota in August, 1865, nearly worn out in his 
country's service; preached one year to the church in Le Sueur; went to Blue 
Earth county and opened a farm, working on it for nine months, gaining consid- 
erable strength ; became pastor of a church at Garden City, in the same county ; 
had there a successful pastorate of five years, witnessing the quadrupling of the 
membership of the church and building a house of worship, and in February, 
1874, returned to Le Sueur and again became pastor of the church here, still 
holding that position. His health may now be called robust, and he does no 
inconsiderable labor outside the direct pastorate. He came into this valley at 
so early a day, and has so extensive a circle of acquaintance and friends, that 
he is often called to preach funeral sermons at a great distance away, in Sibley, 
Nicollet and Scott counties, as well as Le Sueur. At an early day he aided in 
founding several churches outside his own charge. He has always given what 
strength he had to the Master, and at times has no doubt worked beyond his 
strength. 

Major .Sanders was chaplain of the state senate in 1876, 1877 and 1878. He 
is a strong, outspoken republican, cherishing his political convictions with the 
same sincerity that he does his religious, and evidently believing he serves his 
God and his country while serving his party. He is a practical, whole-souled man, 
mingling with the multitude, like any other sensible citizen, never compromising 
his christian character, and always appearing perfectly guiltless of clerical airs. 

The wife of the Major was Miss Minerva Hopkins, a native of New Bruns- 
wick, Dominion of Canada. They were married at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on the 
46 



400 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

I /th of April, 1855, and have two children : Walter Alfred, aged seventeen, and 
Essie Hopkins, aged twelve years. Mrs. Sanders is a woman of more than ordi- 
nary ability, and an earnest and efficient cooperator with her husband in all his 
christian and benevolent labors. 



HON. PETER GEYERMANN, 

SHAKOPEE. 

PETER GEYERMANN, son of Henry Geyermann, weaver, and Christine 
Knell, was born in Waldesch, near Coblentz, Germany, on the 13th of De- 
cember, 1825. He received a meager education ; learned the trade of a nail-maker, 
worked at it until twenty-five years of age, and in 185 1 came to the United States, 
landing at the port of New York on the 7th of July. He proceeded directly to 
the west, spent a couple of months in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, between one and 
two years in and near Chicago, and then located in Aurora, Kane county, Illinois, 
being in the grocery trade there for three years. 

In 1855 Mr. Geyermann came to Minnesota, made a claim of one hundred 
and si.Kty acres of land in Carver county, sold out in 1S57, settled in Shakopee, 
built a store, filled it with general merchandise, and for twenty-one years has 
traded in that building, having a fine stock and doing a remunerative business. 
Like many other merchants he has had his " up and downs," but on the whole 
has been a successful man, beins: noted for his straightforward and honorable 
dealings with his customers, and for his high standing in the city. He is not 
only at the head of the municipality at this time, but has been at least four 
terms, and he held other offices prior to being mayor. He was justice of the 
peace in 1859-60 and 1864-65 ; was court commissioner three years, and has 
been a school trustee nine or ten years. Probably no man in Shakopee takes a 
deeper interest in educational matters than Mr. Geyermann. In youth his own 
opportunities for accjuiring knowledge were very limited ; he has long seen the 
value of it, and is doing all he can to educate his own children and to secure the 
education of all others in the city. By his own efforts, in private, after coming 
to this country, he acquired a good business education, and makes a very popu- 
lar executive in the city government. 

In jjolitics, Mr. Geyermann is democratic, and in Masonry, a royal-arch. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 401 

His wife was Miss Amelia Berreau, of French blood, yet born in Germany, 
and married at Waconia, Carver county, on the 2d of June, 1863; they have 
three children living and have lost three. 

Mr. Geyermann was born and reared a Catholic, but at present has no con- 
nection with any church. His moral as well as business standing is good ; his 
habits are plain, frugal and industrious, and he is a valuable citizen, with worth 
well appreciated. 



DANIEL W. INGERSOLL, 

SAINT PAUL. 

DANIEL WESLEY INGERSOLL, one of the most successful merchants 
of Saint Paul, comes from New England stock. His father, Gilbert Inger- 
soll, a farmer, living at the time of the son's birth, on the 12th of June, 18 12, at 
Newton, Sussex county, New Jersey, died in 1859, at the advanced age of eighty- 
four years. The maiden name of his mother was Elizabeth Predmore. 

Daniel received an ordinary common-school education. When about fourteen 
years of age he became a clerk in the store of John S. Potwin, of Newton ; about 
two years later accompanied Mr. Potwin to Burlington, Vermont. During the 
interval of the change of Mr. Potwin's business from Newton to Burlington, 
Daniel attended the academy at Newton for about nine months. This ended his 
school education, to which he afterward added by private study and historical 
reading. He familiarized himself with the principles of law to such an extent 
that some time alter his removal to New York cit)- he was offered a partnership by 
Archibald Hilton, Esq., then a prominent lawyer in large practice, since deceased. 

When almost twenty-one years of age he became a partner with Mr. Potwin 
in business, and continued in trade at Burlington until about 1836, when the firm 
was dissolved and business closed, Mr. Potwin retiring entirely. 

Mr. Ingersoll removed to New York and commenced the wholesale dry-goods 
trade, remaining there and trading until the close of 1S53, when his health failed 
and he was obliged to relinquish the business to his partners, who purchased his 
interest, Mr. Ingersoll giving bonds not to enter into the business in New York. 

In the autumn of 1855 ^^- Ingersoll was sent out to Minnesota for his health 
by the celebrated Dr. John F. Gray, of New York. He came to Saint Paul and 
spent some weeks with great benefit. In the summer of 1S56 he returned to 



402 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



Saint Paul and spent several months, returning to New York in the winter. In 
the spring of 1857 he moved his family to this city, having commenced the dry- 
o-oods business here the autumn before, and still continuing it. No merchant in 
Saint Paul has made a more honorable record. He began on a moderate scale, 
and his business expanded with the growth of the place. He has a double store 
in his own, the "IngersoU" block, one of the first large stone structures for 
business purposes erected in this city, it being put up in i860. Other blocks of 
similar material have since overtopped it, but eighteen years ago it was regarded 
as a bold as well as " new departure" to put up such a costly building in a city 
then numbering, perhaps, seven or eight thousand people. 

While steadily following the mercantile trade Mr. IngersoU has usually had an 
interest in other enterprises. He is president of the Saint Paul Warehouse and 
Elevator Company, a corporation which has an elevator witli a capacity of five 
hundred thousand bushels ; and he has long been an active cooperator in move- 
ments tending to build up the state as well as city. He is an officer of the State 
Agricultural Society, and has freely given his time to advance its interests. He 
has been president of the Minnesota State Reform School board since it was 
organized, and was for many years on the school board of this citv, and its presi- 
dent for some time. 

Few citizens of Saint Paul have been more useful in more spheres. He has 
been a membi^r oi a Presbyterian church for more than forty years ; the superin- 
tendent of a Sunday-school something- like three-fourths of this period, and was 
several years president of the Minnesota State Sunday-school convention. For 
the last three or four years he has been a member of the executi\c committee of 
the International Sunday-school Association, and one of its vice-presidents. He 
has been an elder in some church, east or west, most of the time since about 
1842 ; has been a decided temperance man for the past thirty-five years, and for 
two years president of the Minnesota State Temperance Society. 

In politics, he was originally a whig; latterly has been a republican. 

Mr. IngersoU was first married in April, 1836, to Miss Harriet Smith, a daugh- 
ter of the late Truman Smith, of Brooklyn, New York. She had ten children, 
and died in September, 1857. P'ive of her children are now living. Mr. Inger- 
soU was married the second time in March, 1859, his wife being Miss Marian M. 
Ward, a sister of Professor Henry A. Ward, of Rochester, New York. He has 
had six children by the present wife, all yet living but one. 



II 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 403 

Mr. Ingersoll has a pleasant residence on Nelson avenue, in the northern part 
of the city, and is surrounded by all the comforts secured by an industrious and 
eminently successful life — successful in the best sense of that word. This is 
owincj, no doubt, in a great measure, to his manner of starting- off as a clerk. 
The writer once heard him remark, incidentally, that when in his fourteenth year 
he beo-an to sell "oods for Mr. Potwin, he had five or si.x dollars of his own 
money. That loose change he put in the money-drawer of the store, credited 
himself with the amount, and never used money afterward without debiting him- 
self with the amount, thus acquiring the habit in early life of keeping a strict 
account of all moneys received and expended. 



HARRISON J. PECK, 

SIIAKOPEE. 

HARRISON JAY PECK, one of the leading lawyers in the Minnesota val- 
ley, and the son of a Vermont farmer, Lewis Peck, was born at Clarendon, 
Rutland county, on the 23d of November, 1842. His mother, before her mar- 
riage, was Harriet Brown. His branch of the Peck family spread into Vermont 
from Rhode Island, all the people of the former state of that name being related 
to each other. Judge Peck, late chief justice of V'ermont, is of this branch of the 
family. Noah Peck, grandfather of Harrison, a very young man at the opening 
of the revolutionary war, was at the battle of Ticonderoga,but how long he served 
we are unable to state. 

The subject of this notice was reared on his father's farm, and educated at the 
New Hampton Institution, Fairfax, Vermont. After preparing for college, teach- 
ing meantime to defray expenses, he spent another year at that school, intending 
to enter the sophomore class of Middlebury College ; but the civil war had broken 
out, and in September, 1861, five months after our flag had been disgraced at 
Fort Sumter, he enlisted in company F, ist regiment Berdan's Sharpshooters, 
and served nearly two years. He enlisted as a private, and was promoted through 
every grade to first lieutenant of his company. 

Returning to Vermont, he read law at Rutland with David E. Nickerson, at 
that time state's attorney; entered the Albany law school in the autumn of 1863 ; 
came to Shakopee in September, 1864, and was here admitted to the bar in 
April, 1865. 



f 



404 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

After practicing in Shakopee two years Mr. Peck made a trip to Montana, 
parti)- for his health and partly to prospect, and on his return stopped at Chaska, 
in the adjoining county of Carver, and remained there from 186S to 1873, serving 
whilf there for one term as county superintendent of schools. In 1S73 he re- 
turned to Shakopee, which has since been his home, and where he has built up a 
practice second in extent, probably, to that of no man in the eighth judicial dis- 
trict ; he has also considerable business in the United States courts. Judging 
from his success before juries, his argumentative powers and forensic efforts are of 
a high order. He is evidently ambitious to excel in the profession, and that is 
the way to grow. 

Mr. Peck has been city attorney during the last three years, and county attor- 
ney since January, 1877. His politics have always been democratic. He is a 
third-degree Mason. 

On the 1st of February, 1870, Miss Ora M. Brown, daughter of Hon. L. M. 
Brown, of Shakopee, became the wife of Mr. Peck, and they have one child. 



GENERAL ALONZO J. EDGERTON, 

KASSON. 

ALONZO JAY EDGERTON, state senator from Dodge county, and a gen- 
^ eral in the late Union army, comes from strictly Puritanic, patriotic and 
fighting stock, both of his grandfathers being in the bloody struggle for inde- 
pcmlenci.;. His maternal grandsire was taken prisoner by the British, and held 
two years in the city of Montreal. His ancestors, both paternal and maternal, 
were natives of Connecticut. He was born in Rome, New York, on the 7th of 
June, 1827. His father, Lorenzo Edgerton, was a farmer. 

The subject of this sketch prepared for college at Lowville, in his native 
state; entered the sophomore class of Wesleyan University, Middletovvn, Con- 
necticut, in 1847; was graduated three years later; taught three years in order 
to su[)i)ly hiiiisell with tunds with which to complete his legal studies, which he 
had i)ursued during his last )-ear in college, and which he continued while he was 
teaching. 

In the summer of 1855 Mr. Edgerton located at Mantorville, the seat of jus- 
tice of Dodge county ; was there admitted to the bar at that time, and there 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 405 

practiced for twenty-three years, except when hi the service of his country. In 
1862 he entered the army as captain of company B, loth Minnesota Infantry; 
was promoted to colonel in February, 1864; breveted brigadier-general in the 
summer of 1865, at New Orleans, and for two years had command of the north- 
ern district of Louisiana, with headquarters at Baton Rouge, being mustered out 
in March, 1867. We learn from a subordinate officer, who was with him nearly 
two years, that he was not only cool and courageous in the hour of danger, but 
very popular with the soldiers under him, his kindness to them being shown 
uniformly and to a marked degree. 

Soon after settling in Dodge county, General Edgerton was elected prosecut- 
ing attorney, serving one term. He was elected to the state senate in 1858 and 
1876, serving two years each time. In January, 1878, he was unanimously elected 
president pro tem. of that body. 

In 1 871 General Edgerton was appointed by Governor Austin to the newly- 
created office of railroad commissioner, — a position which he held for tour years, 
during which period he was the people's commissioner, guarding with the utmost 
faithfulness their interests, without doing injustice to the railroad corporations. 

In the spring of 1878 the General moved from Mantorville to Kasson, a rail- 
road town, three miles south, in the same county, where he is diligently pursuing 
the legal profession. He is a well-read lawyer and a good advocate. His dig- 
nified presence, and his easy and conciliatory manners, combined with great 
earnestness and sincerity, strongly and favorably impress a jury ; hence his suc- 
cess as an attorney-at-law. 

In politics, the General was a democrat until the south undertook to destroy 
the Union, acting with the republicans since that reckless, movement was made. 
He was a member of the democratic national convention held at Charleston, 
South Carolina, in i860, and one of the presidential electors on the republican 
ticket in 1876. 

He is a Knight Templar among the Masons, and has held offices in both the 
Grand Chapter and the Grand Lodge. 

On the 8th of October, 1850, Miss Sarah Curtis, of New Britain, Connecti- 
cut, became the wife of General Edgerton, and of nine children, the Iruit of this 
union, seven are yet living. 

The new home of the General at Kasson, a hundred rods west of the post- 
office, is an umbrageous and cozy retreat from the dust and din of town, where 



4o6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

lie can exchantre his law-books for the Entjlish classics and the best of Ameri- 
can authors. He has a well-selected miscellaneous library of perhaps ten or 
twelve hundred volumes, among thtmi several artistic works of great richness 
and value. 



EDWARD L. BAKER, 

RED WING. 

EDWARD LARRABEE BAKER is a native of Hubbarton, Vermont, 
where he was born on the Sth of September, 1836. He is son of Hon. 
Charles M. Baker, who was born in New York city on the iSth of October, 
1804; studied for the legal profession and was admitted to the bar at Troy, New 
York, in 1829, and practiced at Seneca Falls, New York, with eminent success 
until 1S34. He was an early pioneer in Wisconsin, whither he removed on ac- 
coimt of declining health in 1838, settling at Geneva Lake, in Walworth county. 
During his life he held many offices of public trust and honor, — was chosen a 
member of the territorial convention in 1842, and served until 1S46; was a mem- 
ber of the first constitutional convention, and one of the three commissioners 
appointed in 1848 to "collate and revise all the public acts of the state, of a 
general and permanent nature"; was appointed circuit judge of the judicial dis- 
trict in which he lived in 1856, declining afterward to be a candidate for office 
before the people. He died at his home at Geneva Lake, on the 5th of Feb- 
ruary, 1872, of apoplexy, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. The maiden name 
of Edward's mother was Martha Larrabee, a lady of French descent, who died 
when he was about five years old. His great-grandfather Baker, of Elizabeth- 
town, New Jersey, was a captain in the continental army, and served throughout 
the revolution. His grandfather was James Baker, who served as a captain in 
the second war with England. 

o 

Edward was sent to Beloit College, Wisconsin, when he was about fourteen 
years old; spent three years there, when he went to Racine, in the same state, 
where he studied one year. During his course in these colleges Mr. Baker had 
fitted himself for a civil engineer, and in 1855 he went to the Lake Superior 
regions, where he spent three years, engaged in surveying. After being there 
two years he took a government contract for surveying, being at this time only 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 409 

twenty-one years old. Mr. Baker mentions with pride the fact that at the ao-e 
of twenty, and in the winter of 11^56-57, he, as a United States deputy surveyor, 
with a party of half-breed Indians for assistants, surveyed the group of islands 
in Lake Superior, known as the Apostle Islands, on snow-shoes, the snow 
being four feet deep, and the weather unusually cold even for that northern 
region. For three weeks of the time the thermometer was hardly above zero at 
any time, ami often down to forty below, the party camping out nights without 
tents, under the evergreen balsam trees, in ravines sheltered from the winds. 
In the spring of 1858 he visited I)ulnu[ue, Iowa, then the headquarters of 
the surveyor-general, on business pertaining to his contract. While there he 
determined on a trip to Saint Paul, Minnesota, the result of which was that 
his whole business, and probably his whole after-lile, was changed and diverted 
into an entirely different channel than that which he had anticipated. On 
the trip up the river he became quite well acquainted with a gentleman from 
Red Wing, Minnesota, and as Mr. Baker had some friends living there he de- 
cided to stop off and visit them. This almost chance visit resulted in his relin- 
quishinsj- his trovernment contract and settlino- in Red Wine, where he eno-ao-ed in 
the hardware business, a branch of merchandising in which he has been interested 
ever since. After running the business about one year alone, he formed a partner- 
ship with his brother, Charles H. Baker, which continued about two years, when 
his brother retired, leaving him aeain alone. 

In 1 861, when the country was precipitated into civil war, Mr. Baker at first 
felt disposed to leave the controversy to the politicians for settlement, believino- 
that it was unnecessarily forced upon the country by hot-heads upon both sides ; 
he was inclined to let the abolitionists and fire-eaters fight it out, but after the first 
battle of Bull Run he saw that if the Union was to be maintained it must be by 
force of arms, and he hesitated not a moment in his choice. Though a sincere 
democrat in politics, he was an ardent Union man, inheriting from his patriotic 
ancestors, who fought for it, a love of country which in the time of peril rode 
superior to any question of politics. Sacrificing his business interests, which had 
become quite large, placing the management of it in the hands of an employe, 
he entered the military service in September, 1861, commissioned as first lieuten- 
ant of company E,3d Minnesota Volunteers ; was afterward promoted to captain, 
serving in all three years. In 1865 Captain Baker returned to Red Wing and 

resumed charge of his mercantile business, which had suffered considerably during 

47 



4IO THE UNITF.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

liis long absence. He has been very successful in this line- of trade, as in all others 
in which he is interested. 

In 1869 the Red Wing Mills Company was organized. With a capital stock of 
two hunilrcd and fifty thousand dollars, this is about the second largest milling 
interest in the state. Their two large flouring mills have a capacity of one thou- 
sand barrels daily, and their lumber mills, of five million feet yearly. Mr. Baker 
owns a controlling interest in the stock, is president of the company and gives 
his personal supervision to the management of the mills. 

As before stated, Mr. Baker is a democrat, antl never has been an)thing else ; 
never aspired to political office however, preferring rather to attend to his large 
business interests, and has been fortunate (Miough to hold no offices oi an\ im- 
portance other than being mayor of Red Wing a couple of terms, and for several 
years a member of the state board of trustees of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home. 
His life, since he was eighteen years old, has been one of ceaseless activity, and 
he is, as one may well suppose, a thorough-going, energetic business-man. 

In 1878 he visited Europe in company with his brother, R. H. Baker, of the 
firm of J. I. Case and Co., of Racine, Wisconsin. They visited the great Paris 
Exposition, and about all the principal cities of Europe, partly on business and 
partly for pleasure. 

On the 24th of May, 1859, in Dalton, Massachusetts, Mr. Baker was wedded 
to Miss Rosamond E., daughter of Harrison Rich, of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin. 
They have two children, Charles M. and Mary F. 



WILLIAM F. LEWIS, M.D., 

MANKA TO. 

WILLIAM FRISBIE LEWLS. banker, and son of Dr. John and Ann 
I'^liza (I'risbie) Lewis, dates his l)irth at Clyde, Wayne county. New York, 
on the 3d of October, 1S29. His branch of the Lewis famil_\- were from Schenec- 
tady and its vicinity; the Frisbies were from Vermont. Dr. John Lewis died 
when thr- son was about four years old, and the latter then went to Phelps, Onta- 
rio county, where he received an academic education and prepared for college, 
but did not enter. He came as far west as Wisconsin in 1849 I commenced read- 
ing medicine with Dr. Thomas Spencer, of Milwaukee; attended two courses of 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 41 I 

lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago ; a third course at the College of Phy- 
sicians and Surgeons, New York city, and there received his diploma about 1854. 
After practicing in New York cit)' for more than a year Dr. Lewis went to Europe, 
where he spent the major part of the years 1855 and 1856; visited the principal 
hospitals, and spent considerable time in the medical department of the Univer- 
sity of Edinburgh, Scotland, and at the College of France. 

In 1856 he came to Mankato, and in a short time went to River Falls, Wis- 
consin ; was in practice there about two years; then returned to Minnesota; 
halted in Medford, Steele county, and farmed and carried on the mercantile busi- 
ness till 1864, returning that year to Mankato. Here for two years he was in the 
firm of Lewis and Frisbie, druggists, his partner being William Frisbie, a cousin 
of his wife. In 1866 he went into the banking business in company with Henry 
Shaubut, theirs being the City Bank, a solid and thriving institution, both ener- 
getic, straight-forward, prompt business-men. The integrity ot Dr. Lewis is 
unquestioned. 

He was the first president of the village of Mankato ; has been in the council 
six years since it became a city, and its president part of the time, and has had 
much to do with the shaping of its laws and regulations, and the furthering of 
its general interests and enterprises. He is a stockholder and director of the 
Mankato Manufacturing Company, which is engaged in making plows and other 
agricultural implements. He was also a director of the Central Minnesota rail- 
road, and identifies himself with the movements generally that are likely to de- 
velop the country and that tend to the prosperity of his adopted home. He has 
been president of the Mankato board of trade for the last six or seven years. 

Early in the spring of 1857, when the Ink-pa-du-ca war opened, and forty- 
nine persons were murdered by the Sioux at Spirit Lake, just over the line in 
Dickinson county, Iowa, and other savage butcheries were committed, Dr. Lewis 
raised a company in Mankato, then a small village with less than two hundred 
men fit for military duty, became its captain, and for some time was engaged in 
protecting the frontier settlers. His company had one fight with the Indians, 
but lost no men. 

Besides his interest in the bank and his pleasant home in the city of Mankato, 
Dr. Lewis has about ten thousand acres of improved and unimproved land in 
Minnesota, and a farm of six thousand acres in Dickinson county, Iowa, he being 
an eminently successful business-man. 



412 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

The Doctor is a republican in politics, and a Royal Arch Mason. He attends 
the Presb\terian church with his family, his wife and elder children beiny mem- 
bers of the same. 

Miss Alb(-rtina E. Cowham, of Rochester, near Burlinj^fton, Wisconsin, became 
the wife of Dr. Lewis, on the 15th of June, 1857, and of five children whom they 
have had. four are living: Bertina, aged twenty; Willard F., eighteen ; Irving C, 
si.xtcen, ami John M., aged seven years. 



WILLIAM LEE, 

SAINT PALL. 

DURING the nine territorial years of Minnesota, from 1849 ^o 1S58, and the 
first year or two of its history as a state, a large number of first-class busi- 
ness and professional men settled in Saint Paul, and have been eminentl)- success- 
ful. The brief history of more than twenty of them is recorded in this volume. 
Among them are men who have been governors, supreme and district judges. 
United States and state legislators, United States officers of various titles, pro- 
fessional men of every name, railroad buiklers, Indian traders, merchants, etc. 
Among the last-named class, conspicuous for his brilliant business talents and 
success, is William Lee, ex-mayor of the city, a resident of Saint Paul since 1859. 
He comes from an old Pennsylvania family, who originally emigrated from Eng- 
land ; is a son of Reuben and Clarissa Wetherill Lee, and was born in Hunterdon 
county. New Jerse}-, on the 14th of April, 1822. He received a common-school 
and academic education in his native county ; at seventeen years of age went on 
a farm with his fath(-r, and subse(iu('ntly was a clerk in a store in Easton, Penn- 
sylvania, New York city and Philadelphia, gaining a good insight into the mer- 
cantile trade. 

In 1850 Mr. Lee returned to Easton, where he had commenced his clerkship, and 
then traded for himself for nine years, being quite prosperous in mercantile opera- 
tions. In October, 1859, ^""^ settled in Saint Paul, beginning on a moderate scale 
and gradually enlarging his premises and his trade. He now has a double store, 
lilt) by one hundred and twenty-five feet, three stories above the basement, and 
is doing about hve hundred thousantl dollars annualK', his business being exclu- 
sively wholesale. There are older jolibers in the citv, but none of fairer charac- 
ter. -Saint Paul is well represented in "merchant princes" like our subject. 



I 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 413 

Mr. Lee was mayor of the city of Saint Paul for two terms (1870 and 1871), 
and made an efficient and highly popular executive officer. 

He is a democrat, unwavering and active ; has been chairman- of the demo- 
cratic state central committee for the last seven or eight years, and was a delegate 
to the national conventions in 1872 and 1876, working hard for the success of his 
ticket in both campaigns. He seems to have no political aspirations, does not 
neglect his business for politics, and when he does engage in a political canvass, 
does it good-naturedly, and makes it a species of recreation. 

Mr. Lee was married on the i6th of June, 1853, to Miss Kate Wallace, a 
native of Easton, Pennsylvania. They attend the Episcopal church. 



GENERAL JUDSON W. BISHOP, 

SAINT PAUL. 

JUDSON WADE BISHOP, general manager of the Saint Paul and Sioux 
J City, the Sioux City and Saint Paul, and the Worthington and Sioux Falls 
railroads, is the eldest of a family ol ten children, nine of them now in active life • 
one, the wife of Hon. T. J. Bidwell, of Arizona, having died in 1876. His father. 
Rev. John F. Bishop, for many years a Baptist minister of more than ordinary 
reputation and ability, died in 1859, '•'' Jefferson county, New York, where his 
mother, Mrs. Alena Brown Bishop, is still residing. 

His grandparents. Rev. Luther Bishop and Hon. Aaron Brown, were among 
the earliest settlers in that countv, and, thouoh dead several years, are well and 
favorably remembered by the residents there. 

Judson was born at Evansville, Jefferson county, New York, on the 24th of 
June, 183 1. He received an academical education at PVedonia Academy, Chau- 
tauqua county. New York, where his father was settled as pastor for several years, 
and later at Union Academy, Belleville, Jefferson county, after the return of the 
family to that county. 

Leaving school at sixteen years of age, he was until twenty-one successively 
engaged in the same county as clerk, and book-keeper at Belleville, Adams and 
Watertown ; taught school two winters, one at Woodville and one at Clayton, 
and spent the last year of his minority in charge of a farm then owned by his 
father. Civil engineering had been from boyhood his choice among the profes- 



414 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

sions, and as soon as he was of age he commenced a thorough course of study 
for it, embracing the regular curricukun prescribed for graduates of the Rensselaer 
Polytechnic Institute, of Troy, New York, — then, as now, the leading engineering 
school in this country. He obtained employment in 1853 as draughtsman and 
computer in the office of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, at Kingston, 
Ontario, where, by diligent use of his evenings for study, he completed the course, 
earning meantime his own support and assisting the younger members of the 
family in their education. 

He remained at Kingston during the surveys, location and construction of 
the Grand Trunk, and was assistant engineer in charge of work during- the last 
year of service there. 

On completion of the road, in March, 1857, he came to Minnesota, and was 
immediately engaged in the preliminary surveys of the (now) Winona and Saint 
Peter and the Southern Minnesota railroads. These were suspended by the 
financial crash in October, when he settled in Chatfield, Fillmore county, where 
he spent a year as local surveyor and engineer, publishing meantime a map and 
pamphlet history of that county. 

In September of 1858 he opened (as principal) the ChatfieUl Academy, re- 
sio-ning the following spring to take a contract in government surveying in the 
now well settled county of Cottonwood, then far beyond the inhabited limits of 
the state. 

Returning to Chatfield in October, he purchased the Chatfield "Democrat" 
office, and as editor and proprietor published that paper until the fall ot Fort 
Sumter, in the spring ot 1861. 

On the first call for troops he sold the newspaper office and recruited a com- 
pany of volunteers, which was among the first tendered and accepted for the ist 
regiment. That, regiment was, however, completed by the subsequent acceptance 
of other companies more conveniently accessible to Fort Snelling, and Captain 
Bishop and his compau)- were comiielled to wait the call for the 2d regiment, in 
which they were the: first mustered in on the 26th of [une, 1S61. 

For about four mouths thereafter the regiment was on dut\- in the state. Cap- 
tain Bishop with two companies being stationed at Fort Ripley, but in Octol^er 
the regiment was assembled and forwardc!d to the grand theatre ol the war. 

During the next four years he was constantly on duty with ami in his regiment, 
or had it as a part of his larger command. For gallant and soldier-like conduct 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 415 

no reeiment has ever made a better record, and to have been, as he was, the first 
man mustered into it and the last man mustered out of it, is a military history 
that he may be proud to leave to his children to read and emulate. Honorable 
mention was repeatedly made of him and his regiment in the official reports of 
division and corps commanders, and especially by General George H. Thomas, 
under whom they served for more than three years, commencing with the cam- 
paign that culminated in the victory at Mill Springs. 

Captain Bishop was promoted to major by commission dated March 21, 1862; 
lieutenant-colonel, August 26, 1862; colonel, July 14, 1864, and "for gallant and 
meritorious conduct" breveted brigadier-general on the 7th of June, 1865, and 
was finally mustered out with his regiment on the 20th of July, 1865. 

The autumn and winter of 1865 he spent in surveying and locating the line 
of the (now) river division of the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul railroad 
between Saint Paul and Winona, and in preparing estimates, etc., for its construc- 
tion. In the spring of 1866 he took a large contract for government surveying 
in the southwestern part of the state, which completed, in November he located 
the line (constructed twelve years later) for a railroad from Chatfield to a junc- 
tion with the Winona and Saint Peter railroad, and spent the subsequent winter 
at Galena, IlHnois. The next spring (1867) he was appointed chief engineer of 
the .Saint Paul and Sioux City railroad, and placed in charge of the extension 
from Belle Plaine westward. 

Forty-seven miles had then been built from Saint Paul. Under his supervision 
this road was completed successively to Le Sueur in 1867, to Mankato in 1868, 
to Lake Crystal in 1869, to Saint James in 1870, and the Sioux City and Saint 
Paul road to Worthington in 1S71, and to Sioux City in 1872, General Bishop 
residing at Le Sueur until the autumn of 1868, and thereafter at Mankato. 

On the 1st of January, 1873, he was appointed general manager of both com- 
panies, and in May of that year removed to Saint Paul, where he has since then 
resided. The Worthington and Sioux Falls road has since been constructed under 
his supervision and placed under his management. 

His large responsibilities and exacting duties as railroad manager leave him 
little tiiue for other matters. He is, however, vice-president and director in the 
Citizens' National Bank of Mankato; director in the Saint Paul chamber of com- 
merce, and manager of four grain farms comprising about six thousand acres 
under cultivation. 



4l6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

•* 

He was marrictl on tlie iith of January, 1866, to Miss Nwlie S. Husted, the 
only ilaughter of Lyman Husted, then a leading merchant at Galena, Illinois. 
Her affectionate sympathy anti discreet counsel through all their married life 
affirmed the wisdom of his choice, and her memory is held in blessed reverence 
by her husband and her children. She died on the 19th of .September, 1878, leav- 
ing three sons, Charles Husted, Edwin Judson and Robert Haven. 



JOHN S. PROCTOR, 

STILLWATER. 

JOHN SMITH PROCTOR, mayor of Stillwater, is a son of John and Sarah 
Smith Proctor, and was born in Cavendish, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 
26th of February, 1S26. This branch of the Proctors were English, settling first 
in Massachusetts. John Proctor was a merchant, but the son was reared to farm- 
ing, working very hard through all his minority. He had about three months' 
schooling annually till fifteen ; then attended the Black River Academy, Ludlow, 
Vermont, one autumn ; taught the following winter, and one season a little later; 
went to Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1846, and was a clerk in a wholesale dry-goods 
store three years, and in Ajjril, 1 849, settled in Minnesota, just belore it took 
that territorial name. He was first employed by Churchill and Nelson, lumber- 
men and merchants, Stillwater; was elcxted register of deeds in the autumn oi 
the same year, holding the office four years, and was postmaster under President 
Fillmore. 

In 1852 Mr. Proctor formed a partnership with Andrew J. Short and Oliver 
Parsons, under the firm name of .Short, Proctor and Co., for the sale of general 
merchandise, the firm dissolving at the end of four years. From 1856 to i860 
Mr. Proctor was in the hardware business with his brother. Baron Proctor. 

In the spring of i860 he was appointed warden of the state prison, located at 
Stillwater, and about the same time became secretary and treasurer ol the Saint 
Croi.x Boom Corjjoralion, holding the former [position (Mght )'ears ; the latter to 
the present time. 

He is a thorough-going business-man, eminently trustworthy, and greatly 
esteemed by his fellow-citizens. He never pushes himself forward, and rarely 
accepts political office. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 417 

Mr. Proctor has been a member of the local school board, and in the city 
council a few times, and is now at the head of the municipality, — an office forced 
upon him. 

He is a republican in politics, is a third-degree Mason, has been noble-grand 
among the Odd-Fellows, and holds his religious connection with the Universalist 
church. The purity of his life is unquestioned. 

Miss Caroline M. Lockwood, of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, became the wife 
of Mayor Proctor in October, 1854, and they have one son, Levi C. Proctor. 



MARTIN HAGAN, M.D., 

SATNT PAUL. 

MARTIN HAGAN, one of the leading physicians and surgeons in Minne- 
sota, was a son of Charles and Margaret (Bailey) Hagan, and was born 
in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on the 28th of December, 1832. His grandfather, 
John Hagan, came over from Ireland before the first war with England, and set- 
tled on land in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. He was a poor man, and 
his son Charles, who also became a farmer, had to early start out in the world for 
himself. 

Martin received his literary education in Columbia College, New York city ; 
attended lectures in the Medical University, New York, and Starling Medical 
College, Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from the latter in 1855. After practic- 
ing eight years in Port Washington, in his native state, in August, 1861, he was 
appointed by Governor Dennison surgeon of the 51st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 
and two years later, after a respite of a few months, surgeon of the i6ist regi- 
ment, and served until the autumn of 1864. The 51st regiment participated in 
the battle and capture of Fort Donelson,and in the fights at Stone River, Nash- 
ville, and other engagements; the 16 1st was in the Shenandoah Valley, part of 
the time under General Sheridan. While in the service, Dr. Hagan acted as 
brigade surgeon ;abo\i*-"six Wojith-s.A'frv' C^'^-aJT^ ^T^.^>-*^ 

On returning to Ohio he was elected, in 1864, treasurer of his native county; 
served his term out, and in 1866 attended the hospitals and a course of medical 
lectures in New York city, graduating from the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons in February, 1867. With his professional knowledge thus burnished. Dr. 
48 



4iS THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Hagan came to Saiiu Paul, arriving on the 29th of August, 1867, and has here 
followed his profession very closely and with eminent success. Without spending 
much time outside; of it, he has handled considerable real estate with a crood deal 
of caution and shrewdness, and has been fortunate in such operations, placing 
him in independent circumstances. -,^^ y^rPyr^ ^ .SSf^t-Oc-t.-^^ 

In Ijoth branches of his profession Dr.'Hag^'s reputation is high. He is a ) 
diligent student, and evidently believes in progress. 

He is a member of the Minnesota Medical .Society, and has been its vice- ^ 
president ; is also a member of the Ohio State Medical Society, and of the 
Ramsey County Society. In 1878 he was a delegate from Minnesota to the 
American Medical Association. He was city physician of Saint Paul one term ; 
is now one of the school inspectors of the city and a member of the State His- 
torical .Society, and of the .Saint Paul Academy of Science. He has written 
numerous articles for medical journals. 

The Doctor is a tliird-degree Mason and an Odd-Fellow. In his religious 
views he is undecided. 

His wife was Miss Rose Armstrong, of Port Washington, Ohio; they were 
married in October, 1S61, and have two children. 

Dr. Hagan is about the average height, beinti- live feet and eioht inches tali, 
and weighing one hundred and sixty-two pounds. He has a good deal of per- 
sonal as well as mental polish-; is easy and agreeable in manners, very cordial, 
a pleasant converser. He is modest and unassuming, and has risen purely on his 
own merits. 



THOMAS C. McCLURE,. 

S.I/NT CLOUD. 

THOMAS CLARENDON McCLURE, son of Thomas and Betsy (Ar- 
mour) McClure, is a native of Waldo, Maine, and dates his birth March 1 7, 
1827. The McClures were Scotch-Irish; his greatgrandfather, James McClure, 
came from the north of Irelantl and settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, 
and was ont' of the pioneers in that place. A brother of his aided in destroying 
the tea in Boston harbor. James McClure, junior, the grandfather of our subject, 
was a captain in the revolutionary army, and in several battles: the father of 
Thomas C. was in the second contest with the mother country. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 419 

Thomas McClure was a farmer, and his son worked with his father and at- 
tended and taught school until of age and past. He prepared for college at 
Waterville, beginning to teach at nineteen, and continuing, in all, in that calling 
for twenty-two terms, commencing with district and ending with high schools. 

In 1853 Mr. McClure went to Millbury, Worcester county, Massachusetts, 
and engaged in the leather business until the spring of 1857, when he visited 
northern Iowa and Minnesota, and after several months' careful explorations 
located at his present home. He had paid some attention to the law before 
leaving the east, and here formed a partnership with an attorney, Henry C. 
Waite, the main business of Mr. McClure, however, at first being the dealing in 
lands and land-warrants. 

In 1859 he started a private bank; in 1861 was appointed register of the 
United States land office, located at Saint Cloud; held the office until 1865, and 
then resumed banking, which business still occupies a small part of his time. 

In 1866 Mr. McClure engaged in milling and the lumber trade at Sauk Center, 
in company with Mr. A. Moore ; two years later bought out Mr. Moore, and con- 
tinued the business alone. From 1871 to 1875 he was receiver of the land office. 

He is still in the lumber trade, being of the firm of Clark and McClure. They 
have lumber-yards and manufactories, at Minneapolis and Saint Cloud, and have 
also yards at Manitoba, and a saw-mill on the Otter Tail river, two miles from 
Perham, which is a station on the Northern Pacific railroad, in Otter Tail county. 

Mr. McClure is not only a banker, miller, lumber manufacturer, lumber dealer 
and land operator, but an agriculturist. He has a small farm at Sauk Center and 
one of about two hundred acres near Paynesville, and one which he leases, located 
near Morris, Stevens county. He has also a great deal of unimproved land in 
the upper part of the state, covered with timber, largely pine. In business, he is 
far-seeing, reliable, untiring, and attentive to details. He has an extraordinary 
faculty for acquiring wealth, and is probably the wealthiest man in the state north 
of Minneapolis. 

In politics, Mr. McClure is a republican, with whig antecedents, and his name 
is sometimes mentioned in connection with the office of congressman, his friends 
urging his nomination ; but he is more wedded to business than politics, and does 
very little to encourage such a movement. He was elected to the legislature in 
1858, but it did not convene. In religious sentiment, he is a Universalist, being 
quite " liberal." 



420 



THE UXITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



In Ucccmber, 1859, Miss Clara C. Clark, then a resident of Saint Cloud, and 
a native of Worcester county, Massachusetts, became the wife of Mr. McClure, 
and ihcy have had five children, all yet living but the hrst-born. 



HENRY POiHLER AND CO., 

IIENDERSOX. 

HEN RY IHKH LER, a native of the principality of Lippe Detmold, Germany, 
and son of Frederick and Wilhelmine ( Kaiser) Pcehler, was born on the 
2 2d of August, 1833, and educated mainly by his father, who was a teacher, add- 
'\n<y a few terms at a school of art. In 184H he came to this country ; farmed sev- 
eral years in Des Moines county, Iowa, near Burlington ; in 1S53 came to Saint 
Paul, Minnesota, anil after clerking there one year settled in Henderson, which 
has been his liome nearly twenty-five years. Here he was a clerk for Joseph R. 
Brown for a short time, and for a long time has been in the mercantile trade, 
being of the firm of H. Ptjehler and Co., general dealers in merchandise, agricul- 
tural implements and lumber. 

Mr. Poehler is a stockholder and director oi the .Sibley county bank at Hen- 
derson, and an efficient and successful business-man. 

He was a member of the legislature in 1858 and 1865, and of the senate in 
1872, 1873. 1876 and 1877, being one of the leading members on the democratic 
side, especially while in the upj^er branch. In the autumn of 1878 he was the 
democratic candidate for congress in the second district. 

He is a member of the Free Evangelical church, and a man of high moral 
standing. 

The wife of Mr. Poihler was Miss Elizabeth Frankenfield, a native of Bucks 
county, Pennsylvania, their union taking place on the 15th of September, 1861. 
They have had six children, and lost one of them. 

August F. PtTchler, a younger brother of Henry, born in Germany, on the 7th 
of February, 1838, is the other member of the firm. He came to this country in 
1856, and after clerking three or four years in Henderson, Minnesota, and Bur- 
lington, Iowa, and selling goods for himself at Glencoe, Minnesota, one year, set- 
tled in Henderson in 1S62, and became a member of the firm of II. Pcehler and 
Co., embracing at that time the father and three brothers. .Since 1875 the firm 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 421 

has included only the two brothers, Henry and August F. They are doing 
about one hundred thousand dollars a year, besides the grain business, — by far 
the heaviest trade of any firm in Sibley county. 

August, like his brother, has a wife and family, (five children,) his wife being- 
Miss Emilie Komnick, a native of Prussia. The junior member of the firm has 
the entire charge of the store, and is a very competent, reliable business-man. 
The store is built of brick, fifty by seventy feet, and two stories high — the largest 
and best building of the kind in the county. One-half of the second floor is de- 
voted to a tin-shop, the other half to a hall, mainly for private use. Both Poeh- 
lers have pleasant homes, delightfully situated, and evidently have their full share 
of the comforts of life. Henry P. Poehler owns a large quantity of land, improved 
and unimproved, and the company has two or three farms. No business firm in 
this part of the state has been more successful than that of H. Pcshler and Co. 



HON. REUBEN BUTTERS, 

KASOTA. 

ONE of the earliest settlers in the valley of the Minnesota river was Reuben 
Butters, who, in September, 1851, came up this valley with George VV. 
Thompson and James Lindsey, having a license to trade with the Indians. Some 
years afterward Mr. Thompson was killed on the Rum river, by accident, with his 
own trap-gun, and Lindsey was massacred by the Sioux in the outbreak of 1862. 

Mr. Butters was born in Union, Lincoln county, Maine, on the 26th ot May, 
18 1 6, his parents being Flavel and Mercy Butters. His father, a soldier in 
1812-15, was of Scotch pedigree. Reuben attended winter schools till eighteen 
years old ; clerked in a store for a long time ; in 1845 nioved to Cleveland, Ohio, 
and was there in mercantile trade until 1851, when he came to the Territory of 
Minnesota, locating at Kasota. \w July of that year the purchase of the land 
had been made of the Lidians, but they did not leave the country till two years 
later. 

Mr. Butters, it is said, was the first permanent settler in the Minnesota valley 
above Shakopee. He made the first claim at Le Sueur, and built the first cabin 
there, having a station in connection with Messrs. Thompson and Lindsey, as 
well as one at Kasota. In 1853 Mr. Butters began to improve his claim, raising 



42 2 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in one year nine hundred bushels of potatoes, which he sold for two dollars per 
bushel. He has been engaged in farming- since that date, adding other branches 
of business some years afterward. In 1S65 he opened a stone quarry, and is get- 
ting out from five to six thousand dollars' worth annually. Kasota, so named by 
the Indians, is at the junction of the Winona and Saint Peter and the Saint Paul 
and .Sioux City railroads, and he ships his stone in various directions, finding a 
ofood market for it. He has also a store, and does a fair amount of tradine. He 
has about one hundred acres of land under cultivation, and several hundred acres 
of unimproved, mostly in Le Sueur county. 

Mr. Butters was a member of the first legislature of Minnesota when it be- 
came a state, and has since been in seven or eight sessions. He was a county 
commissioner several years, and in various ways has made himself useful in Le 
.Sueur county. He has always been a democrat. 

Mr. Butters has been twice married: first in November, 1847, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Hill, of Cleveland, Ohio, and the second time in May, 1S61, to Mrs. Mary 
E. Rogers, a native of Maine. 



HON. OSCAR F. PERKINS, 

NOHTIIFIELD. 

OSCAR F. PERKINS, the first settler of the legal profession in Rice coun- 
ty, Minnesota, is a Vermontcr b\ birth, being born in the town of Stowe, 
Lamoille county, on the 4th of January, 1S30. His father, Ellet Perkins, a farmer, 
was commander of a company of the state militia, and known till his death as 
Captain Perkins. He was a volunteer in 1S12, and was on his way to Platts- 
burgh when the battle at that place was fought. His grandfather, Major Nehe- 
miah Perkins, was a prominent citizen of Lamoille county. The maiden name 
of Oscar's mother was Nancy Hyde Lathrop, daughter of Captain Daniel Lathrop. 
At fifteen years of age our subject went to Woodstock, in his native state, and 
spent three years in farming, attending a district school during the winters, and 
then gave four years to studvino- at the Bakersfield Academy, teaching during 
the winter season. While teaching at Bakersfieki he commenced reading law 
with William C.Wilson, afterward judge of the supreme court of \'ermont, there 
fmishing his readings, and was admitted to the bar at Saint Alban's in June, 1854; 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHJCAL DICTIONARY. 423 

left his native state in the autumn of that year, spent the following winter at 
Saint Anthony, now East Minneapolis, and in the spring of 1855 located in Fari- 
bault, there practicing twenty-one years, and settling in Northhelcl in 1876. He 
is now of the law firm of Perkins and Whipple. He is a thorough legal student, 
well grounded in fundamental principles. Although a great reader of authorities, 
his forensic efforts are characterized by a priori reasoning, rather than by citation 
of precedents. He is classed among the best lawyers in his part of the state. 

Mr. Perkins has held various offices since a resident of this state. Soon after 
locating in Rice county he served as its attorney for four years ; was a member 
of the constitutional convention in 1857; was prosecuting attorney for the fifth 
judicial district one term, and a member of the state senate in 1867 and 1868, 
being chairman of the judiciary committee both sessions. He is now county 
attorney, taking that office in January, 1878. 

Mr. Perkins was reared in the whig school of politics, and voted accordingly 
until its demise and the lormation of the republican party, with which he now 
acts. He is a Master Mason. 

In May, 1853, Miss Harriet E. Fay, of Bakersfield, Vermont, became the wife 
of Mr. Perkins, and they have two children, — Fay, aged nineteen, a student in Carl- 
ton College, located at Northfield, and Mary, aged eleven years, attending the 
local graded school. 



JOHN H. WELCH, 

WINNEBAGO CirV. 

JOHN HARVEY WELCH, once register of the United States land office 
for the Winnebago district, and for the last ten years one of the leading mer- 
chants in Winnebago City, is a native of Niagara county, New York, and a son 
of Nathan Welch, farmer, and Amy Lucia Lake. He dates his birth at Royal- 
ton, March 21, 1833, losing his father when the son was hardly two years old. 
His branch of the Welch family were early settlers in eastern New York. The 
subject of this notice received a graded-school education in Lockport, and farmed 
till of age, when he struck out for the west, spending three years as a civil engi- 
neer on the Milwaukee and Watertown and other Wisconsin railroads. 

In the spring of 1857 he came to Faribault county, Minnesota, took up a pre- 
emption claim in the town of Verona, three miles from Winnebago City, and 
cultivated it for three years. 



424 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Wlicii Mr. Lincoln took his scat as I'resident, in March, 1861, he appointed 
Mr. Welch to the office of register of the land ottice, then located at Chatfield, 
and in October of that year removed to Winnebago City. That position he held 
for six years, leaving it during the administration of President [ohnson. Mr. 
Welch immediately opened a hardware store, and has continued in trade since 
that time, being the leading merchant in his line in the village. He is a straight- 
forward business-man, and has been a successful merchant. His integrity and 
reliability have won for him the esteem of a wide circle of accjuaintances. 

He is president of the village, a member of the local board of education, and 
a foremost man in all enterprises tending to advance the educational and general 
interests of the place. 

Mr. Welch was educated in the whig school of politics, and on the demise of 
that party cast his first presidential vote for the gallant " Pathrinder of Empire," 
Colonel John C. Fremont, in 1856, steadily holding to republican principles from 
that date. He has much influence in the party, but lets nothing have the prece- 
dence over business. 

The wife of Mr. Welch was Miss Martha Jane Hazeltine, of Dodge county, 
Wisconsin, their union taking place on the Sth of March, 1859. -They have had 
five children, and lost two of them. The family attend the Presbyterian church, 
of which Mrs. Welch is a member. The names of the living children are Her- 
bert N., Frances Amv and Fallie E. 



OTIS A. PRAY, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

OTIS ARKWRIGHT PRAY is a native of Livermore, O.xford county, 
Maine, where he was born on the 28th of February, 1833. His parents' 
names were Otis and Eliza Allen (Weeks) Pray. His great-grandfather Pray, 
who was a soldier in the revolutionar\- army, emigrated from Scotland to Con- 
necticut, and afterward to Oxford, Massachusetts, whence Otis Pray remo\ed to 
Maine. The latter's occupation was that of a millwright and also a farmer. Otis 
A. passed his youth, as most other boys do, attending the district school, and 
afterward the high school in his native town, until he arrived at the age of 
eighteen, when his school-days ended. In making a choice of a trade, he de- 






/^^r^L-<^ 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 427 

termined to follow that of his father, and to this end he became an apprentice 
of one Daniel Beede, a millwright at Lewiston, Maine. After serving an ap- 
prenticeship of three years he formed a partnership with Beede, which con- 
tinued for three years, during which time they were engaged in mill-building 
throughout Maine. 

In 1857 he came to the conclusion that Maine was not the best place for a 
young man, and being somewhat infected with the western fever, he bade fare- 
well to friends and relatives and started for the far west. Here he decided that 
Minneapolis was going to be the great milling center of the country, and here 
has since been his home. 

Mr. Pray's first enterprise here was to build a saw-mill up the river, and 
while working at that, Mr. W. D. Washburn sent for him to assist in building 
the great Minneapolis mill-dam. After the dam was finished Mr. Pray built the 
Cataract mill, the first flouring mill erected on the west side of the river. Then 
he went to the town of Afton, on the .Saint Croix lake, where he put up a flour- 
ing mill for Gilbert and Buswell; after it was completed he bought Mr. Buswell's 
interest, and operated the mill for two and a half years, when he sold out ; re- 
turning to Minneapolis, he erected, for a Mr. Gibson, what are now called the 
Union Flouring Mills. His next move was to go to Saint Cloud and build a 
flouring mill, which he operated for two years and a half in company with 
Leander Gordon. Then (1866) returning to Minneapolis, he engaged in mill- 
building, manufacturing mill machinery and dealing in general mill-furnishing 
goods. He is owner and proprietor of the Minneapolis Iron Works, and has 
just completed a new set of machine shops. In addition to his home enterprises, 
Mr. Pray is operating a flouring mill at Rockford, Iowa. He also has a fine 
stock farm near Minneapolis, in which he takes great interest. 

In politics, Mr. Pray is a decided republican, and always has been ; he eschews 
office-holding as much as possible, though he did consent to serve three years in 
the city council. 

In religious matters, he and his wife are members of the Universalist church, 
Church of the Redeemer, in this city ; was built under the supervision of Mr. 
Pray, and is one of the finest church structures in the state, both within and 
without. 

On the 17th of June, 1858, at Wilton, Maine, Mr. Pray was married to Miss 
Frances Adeline, daughter of Cyrus Fenderson, of that place. They have one 

49 



42 8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



child living, Albert Fenderson Pray, born on the 24th of September, 1863, who 
is being educated in the high schools of Minneapolis. 

Mr. Pray has been successful in his enterprises, and by energetic attention to 
business he has accumulated a comfortable competence, and earned an excellent 
reputation for business integrity and sagacity. 

Physically, he is a fine-looking man, is five feet ten inches tall and weighs 
about two hundred pounds, and, as shown in the accompan)ing engraving, pos- 
sesses intelligent, genial and pleasant features. 



CHARLES GOODSELL, 

HOWARn LAKE. 

CHARLES GOODSELL, a few years ago pro[)rietor of the land on which 
the villaee of Howard Lake now stands, is a orreat-orandson of Daniel 
Goodscll, who was a drummer in the French and Indian war, and a grandson 
of Edward Goodsell, w^ho was taken prisoner in the revolutionary war while 
defending Black Rock Fort, at the mouth of New Haven harbor, fed on putrid 
meat, poisoned, and died in 1781. The parents of Charles were Amos and Har- 
riet Sabin Goodsell, who were living in New Haven, Connecticut, at the time of 
his birth, on the 27th of July, 1818. The Goodsells are of Welsh descent, and 
settled in East Haven, Connecticut, as early as 1660. The Sabins were English, 
and the name is found in the records of New^ Haven in 1665. 

Charles learned the trade of an ornamental carver, but at eighteen left Con- 
necticut and came as far west with the family as Macoupin county, Illinois, where 
both of his parents died a few years later. He farmed there steadily until 1S57, 
when he visited Minnesota, prospected awhile, and the next year bought a jjiece 
of land two miles from Howard Lake, but did not move his family to Minnesota 
until 1 86 1, locating at first in Hennepin county, at the Radcr settlement, five 
miles south of the present village of Delano. 

In the month of May, 1865. he came to Howartl Lake, bought a farm of one 
hundreil and si.xty acres, on which the village of the same name now stands, and 
also took up a homestead as a government gift, adjoining the farm on the west. 
On this homeste;ul he now resides, living in a very modest yet comtortable style. 
The village of Howard Lake has from five hundred to six hundred inhabitants, 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 429 

and is situated on the Saint Paul and Pacific railroad. The village has four 
houses of worship completed, and others under way ; the best school-house in 
this part of the state, and every index of enterprise, intelligence and thrift. 

Mr. Goodsell is not a grasping man, sells his property at moderate figures, and 
welcomes all well-disposed, industrious new-comers. Howard Lake is a thriving 
place, charmingly located directly on the southern shore of the lake, and is quite 
a summer resort for health and amusement seekers. It is destined to become a 
beautiful city. 

Mr. Goodsell was originally a strong anti-slavery man, voting for John P. Hale 
in 1852, and has been a republican from the date of the party's origin. He has 
held a few town offices and has declined others. He had only a very ordinary 
common-school education, and cannot be tempted to accept any office which he 
does not think himself qualified to fill. No more modest, unassuming man can 
be found in this part of the state. He cultivates his garden and little orchard, 
and the friendship and good will of his neighbors. 

He is a Master Mason, but rarely attends a lodge meeting. 

Mr. Goodsell married Miss Chloe Jane Hayward, of Macoupin county, Illi- 
nois, on the 17th of May, 1S43, and of four children whom they have had two 
are living, all married and residing in or near Howard Lake. George was a 
farmer, and died on the 13th of F"ebruary, 1879; Wallace is a merchant, and Mary 
is the wife of George Miller. 



HON. SAMUEL E. ADAMS, 

MONTICELLO. 

SAMUEL EMERY ADAMS, son of Solomon VV. and Mary A. (Emery) 
Adams, is a descendant of the old Lexington, Massachusetts, family of that 
name, and was born in Reading, Windsor county, Vermont, on the ist of Decem- 
ber, 1828. His great-grandfather, Joseph Adams, was a soldier in the war for 
independence. 

When -Samuel was about a year old the family moved to Bellows Falls, and 
thence to Rutland county, where he was raised on his father's farm. He prepared 
for college at Thetford and West Randolph; entered Dartmouth in i85i,and 
was obliged to leave on account of ill health. In 1853 he was appointed, by 
President Pierce, route agent between Boston, Massachusetts, and Burlington, Ver- 



43° THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

inoiU ; two years later resigned that position and came to Minnesota, on account 
of a bronchial difficulty, from which he speedily and permanently recovered. 

Mr. Adams settled in Monticello, then the seat of justice of Wright county, 
in 1856; for two or three years was in the mercantile trade; in 1859 was ap- 
pointed special agent of the postoffice department for Iowa and Minnesota; the 
next year became receiver of public moneys at the United States land office, 
Saint Cloud, Minnesota, leaving it the next year, when the republicans came into 
power. Though a democrat in these days, he was for prosecuting the war for 
the Union with th(' utmost energy and dispatch, and in 1862 was appointed pay- 
master by President Lincoln; was breveted lieutenant-colonel in 1S65 "for meri- 
torious services in the field," not leaving the service until January, 1866, when 
honorably discharged by the secretary of war. 

That year Colonel Adams returned to Monticello and engaged in mercantile 
trade and real-estate operations. He had been admitted to the bar in 1862, but 
has paid little attention to legal business, except in connection with land transac- 
tions. For the last eight or ten years he has been very active in the grange move- 
ment. He organized the Monticello Lodge, and was its master for six years ; for 
four years thereafter was master of the State Grange; in 1877 was elected master 
of the National Grange, and still holds that office. No man in Minnesota has 
done more than he to build up the order, believing the education and elev^ion 
of the agricultural classes indispensable to tht* prosperity of our present form of 
government. 

Colonel Adams was elected state senator in 1857, and reelected in 1859, '^^'^ 
while in that body served on the committees on state affairs, public lands, towns 
and counties, and engrossment. He has been a continued member of the local 
school board for many years, and is a live man in educational matters. 

He was a tlemocrat until the old llag was fired upon at Fort Sumter, and has 
since been independent, acting as he thinks is for the best interests of the state 
and nation. 

Colonel Adams is a thirty-second degree Mason ; secured the establishment of 
a masonic lodge in his own village, of which he was master, and has been junior 
and senior grand warden of the Grand Lodi^e of Minnesota. 

He was joined in wedlock with Miss Augusta J. Smith, of Pittsford, Vermont, 
on the 2ist of July, 1859, ^"<^ they have two sons, — Henry Rice, aged seventeen, 
and John Cain, aged twelve years. The family attend the Baptist church. Mrs. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 43 1 

Adams is a lady officer of the National Grange, and is very active and efficient in 
promoting the interests of the order. Both heads of the family are among the 
foremost members of the community in benevolent enterprises. 



AVERY A. HARWOOD, 

AUSTIN. 

AVERY AMHERST HARWOOD, postmaster at Austin, a native of Oneida 
^ county, New York, was born in the town of Constantia, on the 22d of March, 
1833. His parents were Francis Harwood, a carpenter and joiner, and Sophronia 
nee Patterson. On his father's side he is of remote English descent, on his 
mother's, of Irish extraction. His great-grandfather, Nathan Harwood, rebelled 
against the tyranny of George HI and joined the colonial army, in which he con- 
tinued until the close of the war. 

When Avery was ten years old the family came as far west as Salem, Ke- 
nosha county, Wisconsin, where the son acquired the simple art of tilling- the 
soil and a thorough academic education. At nineteen years of age he broke a leg 
and became crippled for life, this accident determining his course. He read law 
one year with Orson S. Head, of Kenosha, and afterward with a maternal uncle, 
Hon. Lucius Patterson, at Grand Rapids, Michigan; in 1857 removed to Buchanan 
county, Iowa; was admitted to the bar at Independence; practiced between one 
and two years at Fairbank, in that county; went to Caldwell's Prairie, Racine 
county, Wisconsin, in 1859, and was there married; in i860 opened a law office 
at West Salem, La Crosse county, and three years later (November, 1863,) re- 
moved to Owatonna, Minnesota, being in practice there for eight years. While 
a resident of Steele county he was county attorney and judge of probate one term 
each, and county superintendent of schools two years. 

In 1 87 1 Mr. Harwood settled in Austin, purchased the Mower county "Trans- 
cript," and edited and published it until June, 1878, when he sold it to Davidson 
and Wheeler. He has been postmaster since January, 1877. Since he became a 
resident of Mower county he has held the office of county superintendent of 
schools one term. 

In 1867, when the University of Minnesota and the State Agricultural College 
were reorganized and consolidated, Mr. Harwood was appointed a regent, and has 



432 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

held that office for eleven consecutive years, being much of the time secretary of 
the board. 

In 1867, 186S and 1869 he was in the employ of the state in conduclint( and 
managing state teachers' institutes three months each year, being eminently suc- 
cessful in such literary work. In 1870 he was elected president of the .State 
Teachers' Association, and in October, 1871, he presided at the annual meeting 
held in the hall of the First State Normal School in Winona. 

Mr. Harvvood has always been a republican, and was secretary of the state 
senate in 1870 and 1871, and a member of the state central committee in 1875. 
During the last five or si.\ years he has been regarded as the leader of his party 
in Mower county. 

He is an Odd-Fellow, and has passed through the Encampment; is connected 
with no chiu'ch, but is a liberal supporter of that class of institutions, and a man 
of irreproachable character. 

On the 24th of May, 1859, Miss Alice D. Stoddard, daughter of William and 
Louisa Stoddard, of Caldwell's Prairie, Wisconsin, became the wife of Mr. Har- 
wood, and they have one son, William Francis, aged thirteen years. Mrs. Har- 
wood is a great-granddaughter of General Stark, of revolutionary fame. 



JOHN A. ARMSTRONG. 

I'M R. MO NT. 

JOHN ADAMS ARMSTRONG, son of John A. Armstrong, senior, and 
Elizabeth Gray, was born in the town of Lisbon, Saint Lawrence county. 
New York, on the 7th of August, 1832. His parents were from Vermont. His 
grandfather, Samuel Armstrong, was an officer in the second war with the mother 
country, and his maternal great-grandfather was a captain in the first war. In 
1845 the subject of this notice accompanied his parents to Walworth county, 
Wisconsin, where they farmed a few years and then removed to Waukesha 
county, there engaging in the same business. Both parents diet! in that county. 
John received a very ordinary education at district schools in New York and 
Wisconsin; farmed steadily until 1859, then went to California, spending one 
season there, and between four and five years in the silver mines of Nevada, 
returning in 1804, having had fair success. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 433 

Mr. Armstrong- settled in the town of Nashville, in the northeast corner of 

Martin county, immediately after coming back from the silver mines, and there 

has a farm of four hundred and forty acres under very fair improvement. He is 

also an extensive stock-breeder; has probably as fine a small herd of short-horns 

as any stock-raiser in the state ; has a thorough-bred imported Norman horse 

and half-a-dozen head ol trottino' stock, consisting of brood mares and the stal- 
er ' o 

lion, and has also a flock of Cotswold sheep, and a fine lot of Berkshire and 
Suffolk swine. He takes a great deal of pains with his stock, and usually has 
the best strains of every kind, taking a liberal share of premiums at county and 
larger fairs. Everything he raises is for the market, and his stock commands the 
highest figures. Of thorough-bred and graded cattle alone he has more than one 
hundred head. He is president of the Martin County Agricultural Society. 

On the 4th of January, 1870, Mr. Armstrong became county auditor by ap- 
pointment, and has since been elected four times. His last term expired on 
the 1st of March, 1879, '^"'^ '""^ refuses to serve any longer. He is not only 
a competent but very popular accountant, prompt and eminently trustworthy. 
He has lived at Fairmont, the county seat, since 1870. 

Mr. Armstrong is a republican, living in a strongly republican county, and 
has been repeatedly solicited to represent his county in the legislature, but has 
uniformly declined. He is one of those men whom office seeks, but does not 
always secure. 

He is a Royal Arch Mason, an Odd-Fellow, and a member and deacon of 
the Congregational church. Probably no man in the county has a better moral 
standino- or the higher regard of his neighbors. 

The marriage of Mr. Armstrong occurred at Waukesha, Wisconsin, on the 
5th of April, 1853, his wife being Laura V. Hollembeak, a native of Saint Law- 
rence county. New York. They have ten children, — eight daughters and two 
sons, — three of the daughters being married and living in Fairmont. Lavinda 
E. is the wife of John W. Miricle ; Juliet V. is the wife of Y. H. Saint-John, and 
Angelia is the wife of Charles F. Livermore. Orianna V. is a student in Carlton 
College, Northfield, and the others (Lyndon K., Roswell, O., Florence Mabel, 
Effie Maud, Lizzie E. and Albina C.) are being educated at home. 

The children generally have a strong relish for books and learn rapidly, being 
encouraged by their parents. Mr. Armstrong has always been a great reader, 
and may be classed among self-educated men. His school privileges being 



434 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

limited, and feeling the need of more practical knowledge, at an early day he 
mastered the lower branches of tlic mathematics out of school, and made also 
considerable progress in that manner in other branches. He is one of the best- 
informed men in the county. 



EDWARD T. ARCHIBALD, 

D UNI) AS. 

EDWARD TRACY ARCHIBALD, one of the leading Hour manufacturers 
of Rice county, Minnesota, is a native of the Dominion and Province of 
Canada, being born at Osnabruck, on the 14th of June, 1827. His ancestors were 
from Argyle, Scotland, going thence to Londonderry, Ireland. The progenitor of 
the family in this country was among the pioneers in Londonderry, New Hamp- 
shire. The father of Edward was John Archibald, a physician of considerable 
prominence, who died at Osnabruck only a few years ago, at the ripe age of 
eighty-seven. The mother of our subject was Sarah Hoople. 

Edward received only a common-school education ; at fifteen years of age 
went into a store in his native town, and was a clerk till he reached his majority. 
About that time he went into the mercantile business in company with an elder 
brother, John S. Archibald, at Heckston, Canada, there continuing in trade two 
years. 

In 1849 '^I''- Archibald visited California, going by way of the Isthmus, but on 
account of ill health returned in six months. The next year he went into trade 
at Hammontl, Saint Lawrence county, New York, remaining there until 1855, when 
he visited Minnesota, locating at Hastings in April, 1856, and engaging in the 
real-estate business. During that year he visited the site of the present village 
of Dundas, surveyed its water-power and other advantages for a town. In 1857 
his elder Isrother, already mentionc^d. came to see it, knowing the jjroperty was 
for sale, and this brother, in company with a cousin, George N. Archibald, imme- 
diately closed the bargain for eleven hundred acres, including the water-power. 
They built a stone flouring-mill and saw-mill, and were in partnership two or 
three years. In 1865 Edward T. purchased a half-interest in the flouring-mill, 
then owned by his brother, and they were in the milling business together until 
the death of the brother, in July, 1876. In 1870 they built a second mill, with 
nine run of stone, in which Mr. Archibald is manufacturing, on an average, about 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 435 

forty thousand barrels of Hour per annum. His flour is made by the patent pro- 
cess, and is as well known for its superior excellence in Europe as in this country. 
No brand in North America is in better repute or demand in Boston and New 
York than "Archibald's Extra," and his " Marigold" is as great a favorite in Glas- 
gow and other cities in Scotland. 

No man in Minnesota has made his business a more careful study than Mr. 
Archibald : he puts science as well as art into it, hence the lofty figures at which 
his several brands are quoted in the eastern and European markets. He also 
puts conscience as well as caution into his business, and nothing of an inferior 
quality goes on the market. 

No man in the Cannon valley attends more closely to his business, and few 
manufacturers of any kind in the state have been more successful. Besides his 
mill property, Mr. Archibald has about one thousand acres of land, mostly im- 
proved, in Rice county, near his home ; a farm of six thousand acres on the .Saint 
Paul and Pacific railroad, near Morris, Stevens county, and is a stockholder and 
director of the First National Bank of Saint Paul and the bank of the same name 
at Northfield, three miles from Dundas. He is one of the solid men of Minne- 
sota. He is a member of the Episcopal church at Dundas, and a man of exalted 
moral and religious character. 

The wife of Mr. Archibald was Miss Jane Morse, of Hammond, New York ; 
they were married on the 8th of September, 1848, and have two sons: John 
Morse, late state senator from Rice county, and now a resident of Saint Pau-l, 
and Frank, who is with his father, both being millers. 



JOHN ZAPP, 

SAINT CLOLjD. 

ONE of the best representatives of the German element in the population of 
Stearns county, Minnesota, is John Zapp, eighteen years the register of 
deeds of the county, with his residence at .Saint Cloud, the seat of justice. He 
is the son of Michael and Susan Ritter Zapp, and was born in Rhenish Prussia, 
on the loth of June, 1830. He was educated in the graded schools of Schoen- 
ecken, his native village. His father was an engineer, and had a small farm, on 

which the son worked, when not in school, until 1854, when he came to the new 
.so 



436 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

world, halting at first in Newark, New Jersey. There he clerked one winter; 
the next spring came as far west as Chicago, where he was an engineer in a 
steam factory until the autumn of 1856, at which time he located at Sauk Rapids, 
Benton county, Minnesota, a village, then in its infancy, lying on the eastern 
shore of the Mississippi river. 

Mr. Zapp ran the engine in a saw-mill two or three years ; in 1859 removed 
to Saint Cloud, two miles below Sauk Rapids, on the other side of the river, and 
here he acted as clerk and bookkeeper for Proctor and Clark, merchants, two 
years. In iS6i he was elected register of deeds, and has been reelected eight 
times, each term being two years, and ere long became so popular that since the 
first six years both parties have usually given him a hearty support. A more 
faithful man never held office in .Stearns county. He is always at his post, and 
not only reliable, but prompt and obliging. 

The affiliations of Mr. Zapp have always been with the democratic party, but 
he is not a violent partisan. His religious creed is Roman Catholic, in which 
church he was reared, but, as in politics, he is not a very strict adherent to creeds. 
His moral character has always stood fair. 

On the 24th of July, 1862, Mr. Zapp was joined in the holy bands of wedlock 
with Miss Margaret Hoffmann, of Saint Joseph, Stearns county, and they have 
four children living and have lost two. 



HON. AUSTIN H. YOUNG, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

AUSTIN HILL YOUNG, associate justice of the fourth judicial district, was 
>- born on the 8th of December, 1830, at Fredonia, Chautauqua county. New 
York. His parents were Abijah Young and Rachael his wife 7icc Hill. Abijah 
Young was by occupation a cabinet-maker, and died in February, 1837. 

Austin H. attended school in his native town, and afterward at Waukegan, 
Illinois, where he completed his academic studies. He did not attend college. 
While in Waukegan he studied law in the office of Ferry and Clark, one of whom 
(Mr. Ferry) is at present governor of Washington Territory. Leaving Wau- 
kegan in April, 1854, he removed to Prescott, Wisconsin, where he remained 
about twelve years ; was elected clerk of the circuit court, which office he 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 437 

retained until May, i860, wlien he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the 
practice of the law, forming a partnership with M. H. Fitch, which continued until 
the latter entered the army. 

In 1862 Mr. Young- was admitted to practice in the supreme court of Wiscon- 
sin, and during the same year was elected to the office of district attorney, serving- 
four years in that capacity; was elected to the state senate in 1863, and held 
that office for two years. From the fact of Judge Young obtaining these respon- 
sible positions of trust in a comparatively short time after arriving there, a briefless 
lawyer and a stranger, the conclusion is naturally adduced that he must have pos- 
sessed excellent and commendable qualities to so soon command the respect and 
confidence of the people ; and it but adds one more to the innumerable exam- 
ples of what a man can do, even without a collegiate training, if he but be made 
of the right material, and possessed of a determined energy and perseverance. 

From 1855 to 1858 Judge Young was also interested in the mercantile trade, 
whereby he obtained an experience in commercial and business matters which 
he has found of much available value since occupying the judicial bench. 

In 1S66 Judge Young emigrated to Minnesota and settled in Minneapolis, 
where he has since resided. Arriving here he began the practice of his profes- 
sion in company with W. D. Webb, under the firm name of Young and Webb. 
Mr. Webb leaving soon after, he continued in practice alone until 1870, when he 
formed a partnership with Mr. Thomas Lowry, which continued until the ist of 
June, 1872, when Mr. Young received the appointment of judge of the court of 
common pleas. He also at this time resigned his position of city attorney, to 
which ofiice he had been elected in 1871. In 1877 the state legislature consoli- 
dated the court of common pleas and the district court, giving this district two 
judges, the statute also making the judge of common pleas one of the district 
judges. At the following election Judge Young was elected to retain the office for 
the full term, expiring- in 1884. His associate in this office is Judge Vanderburgh. 

The political proclivities of Judge Young are in favor of republicanism, being 
nominally elected as such to his present position. But in respect to politics, the 
bench of Minnesota is commendably unlike that of most other states, — the 
judges are apparently entirely uninterested in all political questions, holding 
themselves aloof from participating or actively sympathizing with either party, 
and in doing so they command the respect and admiration of all good citizens. 

Judge Young was married in April, 1854, and lost his wife by death in 1868 ; 



438 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

was married again, and again death claimed his wife. His present wife was Miss 
Leonora Martin, dauofhter of Milton Martin, of W'illiamstown, Vermont ; married 
on the 9th of April, 1872. He has three children living, all by his first wife: 
Edgar A., born on the 19th of February, 1861; Nellie, born on the 19th of March, 
1863, and Alice M., born on the 1 ith of June, 1866. 

Judge Young attends and is a deacon in Plymouth Church, of which Mrs. 
Younpf is also a member. 

As a lawyer, Judge Young achieved deserved success: able, courteous and 
honorable ; a fluent speaker, possessing quick perceptions, a logical mind, and, 
more than all, a sort of indefinable earnestness and firmness in manner and ap- 
pearance, which seemed to impress men with a conviction of his perfect candor 
and integrity, he made rapid progress, and was, when called to the bench, enjoy- 
ing a lucrative practice. Upon the bench he has demonstrated that he also 
possesses in a marked degree those peculiar qualities which constitute a judge: 
fearless, independent and prompt, his decisions, quickly given and unmistakably 
uttered, whether right or wrong, possess that certain clear and clean-cut quality 
which is eminently satisfactory to the profession ; and it is also certain that he 
satisfies and enjoys the general confidence of the people whom he serves. 



CAPTAIN JOHN P. OWENS, 

TAYLOR'S FAf.LS. 

JOHN PHILLIPS OWENS, one of the patriarchal journalists of Minnesota, 
and now register of the land office at Taylor's Falls, was born in Dayton, Ohio, 
on the 6th of January, 1818. His father, William Owens, was a native of North 
Wales, and came to America when a youth of eighteen years. His mother, 
Elizabeth Mulford, was a native of Cape May county, New Jersey, and accompa- 
nied her brother's family to the Miami valley in 1806, this being one of the first 
families that migrated thither under the patronage of those enterprising "Jersey- 
men " who did so much toward the early settlement of that fertile country, 
Jonathan Dayton and Daniel C. Cooper. 

William Owens was a carpenter and builder, and erected many of the resi- 
dences, business houses and churches which formed the first structures in the 
now flouring city of Daj'ton. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



439 



The first recollection of his existence that the subject of this sketch has, was 
that his parents were residing on a farm three or four miles east of that city, in 
Montgomery county, and adjoining the Shaker village of Watervliet. This land 
his father had purchased of Jesse Hunt, maternal grandfather of Hon. George 
H. Pendleton, United States senator from Ohio, and was eneaoed at the time 
here alluded to in clearing it up for cultivation. Having served in the disastrous 
campaign of Hull in 1812, and suffered the privations of the Maiden (Canada) 
prison, after the surrender of that unfortunate general, this task of clearing 
heavily-timbered land proved too much for him, and he died when his son John 
was seven years old. A younger brother died a few months afterward, leaving 
the widow with only one child. She subsequently married an old New Jersey 
acquaintance, Christopher Leaming, a farmer, of Madisonville, Hamilton county, 
eight miles east of Cincinnati. Mr. Leaming was a model farmer in his neigh- 
borhood, and there his stepson received the rudiments of an agricultural educa- 
tion, which has since been of vast benefit to him as a journalist. 

After receiving a commourschool and academic education, the tastes and habits 
of young Owens led him, like many other youths, to ignore the desires of his 
mother, who wished him to receive a college training in order that he might be- 
come a member of one of the learned professions. He preferred to be a "roller- 
boy " in a printing-office, passing thence to the " case," to the front of the old 
Washington hand-press, and finally to the book and job room, graduating on his 
twenty-first birthday a complete and thorough printer, such as we too rarely find 
about printing-offices these "degenerate days." 

Like most young printers, being now ambitious to become an editor, and hav- 
ing some means by the sale of the Montgomery county farm, inherited from his 
father, he embarked in a foolish newspaper enterprise in Cincinnati, and lost all 
he had. With pockets far from plethoric, he started out as a " traveling jour, 
printer," visiting and working in the offices of the Louisville "Journal," George 
D. Prentice, editor, Vicksburgh "Whig," Natchez "Courier," and New Orleans 
"Bulletin" and "Picayune." During the presidential campaign of 1840 he re- 
turned to Cincinnati and connected himself with the " Republican," the immediate 
organ oi the whig presidential candidate. General Harrison. A series of sketches, 
being burlesque reports of democratic meetings in the city and vicinity, written 
by Mr. Owens, and published under the nom-de-phime of Joe Daviess (borrowing 
the name from one of General Harrison's heroes of Tippecanoe), attracted the 



440 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

attention of the general and the whig leaders, and set Mr. Owens up as one of 
the most promising young writers of the party. 

After being connected as reporter and associate editor with various news- 
papers in Cincinnati, Mr. Owens formed a business connection with Major Na- 
thaniel McLean, of Cincinnati, in May, 1849, ^^ establish a newspaper at Saint 
Paul, the spring that Minnesota took her territorial name, reaching the capitol on 
the 27th of that month. He came from Prairie du Chien on the same boat with 
Hon. Alexander Ramsey, the newly-appointed governor. 

In July the publication of the Minnesota " Register" was commenced by Mc- 
Lean and Owens, there being two weekly newspapers already in existence there, 
the "Pioneer" and the "Chronicle." In th(- following October the "Register" 
was united with the "Chronicle," and the publication continued by the same firm 
until July, 1S50, when the paper changed hands and soon after died. 

In the autumn of 1851 Mr. Owens, in connection with George W. Moore, now, 
and since the first inauguration of President Lincoln, deputy collector of customs 
for the port of Saint Paul, established the weekly " Minnesotian," which paper 
they successfully published, starting a daily and tri-weekly edition in 1854. Three 
years later broken health compelled Mr. Owens to dispose of his interest in the 
concern and engage in some other pursuit. The " Minnesotian " was regarded 
in its day as the leading republican paper in the territory and state. 

In October, 1862, Governor Ramsey appointed Mr. Owens (piartermaster of 
the 9th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, with which regiment he served against 
the Indians on the frontier until the autumn of 1863, when he accompanied it to 
Missouri. In May, 1864, the command went farther south, and was at Memphis 
attached to the second brigade, first division, sixteenth army corps, Major-General 
A. J. .Smith, commander. Mr. Owens served as regimental and brigade quarter- 
master until the close of the war, being present at the battle of Tupelo, on the 
14th and 15th of July, 1864; at Nashville, on the 15th and i6th of December, 
1864, and at the siege of the Spanish Fort, Mobile Bay, April, 1865. He came 
out of the war with the rank of captain and adjutant-quartermaster. 

In April, 1869, Captain Owens was appointed register of the land office at 
Taylor's Falls, which place has since been his home. His politics are ultra re- 
publican, and he has done a great deal to strengthen the party in Minnesota, 
still having much influence. He is past-grand master of the Grand Lodge, Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd-Fellows, of the state. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 441 

Captain Owens has a second wife. His first was Miss Helen J. McAllister, 
of Oxford, Ohio ; married in November, 1848. Six months afterward she accom- 
panied her husband to Minnesota, and bore him a daughter and a son, the latter 
dying when ten days old. The mother speedily followed the little one to the 
world of spirits. The daughter, Mary Helen, is unmarried and resides with her 
father. His present wife was Miss Frances M. Hobbs, daughter of John W. 
Hobbs, a celebrated musician and composer, of London, England, where he died 
in 1877; they were married in New York city, on the 26th of October, 1853, and 
have no issue. 

Captain Owens has written a " Political History of Minnesota," which we 
understand will make a volume of four hundred or five hundred octavo pages, 
and which will probably be published during the ensuing year. He is thoroughly 
conversant with his subject, and the work will no doubt be very valuable. Cap- 
tain Owens is familiar with the political history of the nation as well as his 
adopted state, and is a rich converser on general topics. 



HENRY J. YOUNG, M.D., 

WASECA. 

HENRY J. YOUNG, a native of Rochester, Windsor county, \"ermont, is 
of revolutionary stock, his great-grandfather, Henry Young, being a cap- 
tain in the continental army. His parents were Reuben and Hannah (Austin) 
Young, members of the farming community. Henry, the first child in a family 
of three children, was born on the 9th of June, 1831, and reared on the farm until 
seventeen years of age. He received an academic education at Springfield, in 
his native county; studied medicine at that place with Dr. E. A. Knight, com- 
mencing in 1850; attended his first and third courses of medical lectures at 
Woodstock, Vermont, and his second at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and received 
his medical diploma at the Vermont College in 1854. 

After practicing one year with his preceptor at Springfield, Dr. Young came 
out as far westward as Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, and there practiced twelve 
years, except when in the service of his country. In 1S61 he became assistant- 
surgeon of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry; served one year, and resigned on account 
of physical exhaustion. A little later he was commissioned surgeon of the 37th 



442 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Wisconsin Infantry, but was immediately transferred to the 47tli, and served till 
the close of the rebellion, having', during; the last four or five months, charge of 
the United States General Hospital at Tullahoma, Tennessee. 

In 1867 Dr. Young located at Waseca, where he has been in general practice 
and has an excellent business. His experience in the field and in hospitals dur- 
ing the rebellion was a source of great discipline to him, and added much to his 
reputation as well as skill in the healing art. He does most of the surgery in 
these parts, and has a high standing alike in his professional, social and moral 
character. He is a member of the State Medical Society. 

His religious connection is with the Congregationalists. The purit\- of his 
life is un(]uestioned. Humane movements have his warm sympathy and hearty 
support. 

He has had a wife since the 12th of January, 1S56. .She was Miss Lucia H. 
Preston, of Pittsheld, Vermont. They have two sons, Carl H., aged eighteen, 
and John C, aged fourteen years, both being educated at Carlton College. 

Mrs. Young, like her husband, is quite active in the Congregational church and 
society, and is a woman of generous impulses. In the temperance cause she is one 
of the leading women in the state, being grand worthy vice-templar. She does 
her work in a quiet, unostentatious way, and is very successful in organizing chil- 
dren's temperance societies, and in stimulating other women to work in the good 
cause. She is assistant general superintendent of juvenile tcmj)lars in the state. 



HON. GORDON E. COLE, 

FARIBAULT. 

GORDON EARL COLE, for six years attorney-general of the State of 
Minne.sota, is a son of Lansing J. Cole, a physician, and Laura Brown ; his 
parents living at the time of his birth, ]une iS, 1833, at Cheshire, Berkshire 
county, Massachusetts. His great-grandfather was an early settler at Saybrook, 
in that state, and moved thence into the western county. 

Gordon received his literary education mainly at the Suffield Academy, Con- 
necticut ; read law in the office of Governor Briggs, at Pittsfield, and then with 
Gammell and Adams, and graduated from the Dane Law School, Harvard Uni- 
versity, in 1854. He practiced two years in his native town ; came to Minnesota 




^^^^^y-,^^-z<J Cn", 




THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 445 

in the autumn of 1856, and after spending two or three months at Chatfield, re- 
moved to Faribault, on the ist of January, 1857, having here been in the practice 
of his profession since that date. He has a deservedly high reputation in his pro- 
fession, and for many years has held a leading position at the bar of the state — 
some good judges placing him at the head. Everybody u^ho ever heard him will 
admit that he has wonderful power before a jury, being self-poised, conscious of 
his own strength, clear, forcible, eloquent. 

In the autumn of 1859 ^''- Cole was elected attorney-general of the state, 
and held the office three consecutive terms ; was elected a state senator, to fill a 
vacancy in the eighth district, a short time before his third term expired ; served 
one session and declined a renomination. He had previously been elected one 
of the commissioners for revising the statutes, serving in that capacity about one 
year. For the last eleven or twelve years he has stuck very closely to his pro- 
fession, doing an extensive and very remunerative practice. He has also in- 
terested himself very much in local enterprises of various kinds. He is a trustee of 
Saint Mary Hall, located at Faribault, an institution of learning for young ladies, 
under the direction of Bishop Whipple; and is chairman of a railroad committee 
interested in building the Cannon Valley railroad from Red Wing to Mankato. 
He has been the attorney of the Iowa and Minnesota division of the Chicago, 
Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railroad Company since the enterprise was com- 
pleted. 

In politics, Mr. Cole has been a republican since there was such a party, and 
was chairman of a Fremont club in his native town in 1856, losing his vote that 
year by emigrating to Minnesota. During the forty or fifty ballotings for United 
States senator in 1875, when at length the republicans dropped the names of 
Messrs. Ramsey and Davis, on one or two days Mr. Cole led on the republican 
side, the votes being divided among three or four strong men. We do not use 
the word candidates, for, in the case of Mr. Cole, he was not a candidate — the 
act was sprung upon the legislature without his knowledge — though, had he 
been elected, he would hardly have refused to serve. He has the ability to fill 
with credit any office which the people of Minnesota can bestow upon liim. 

He is a Royal Arch Mason, a vestryman in Bishop Whipple's cathedral, 

and a trustee of the corporation known as the " Minnesota Foundation," which 

is designed to afford an income for the support of the bishop. 

Mr. Cole is living with his second wife, being first married in August, 1855, 
51 



446 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

to Miss Stella C. Whipple, of Shaftsbury, Vermont, she dyintr in June, 1S72 ; she 
had four children, three of them yet lixing. His present wife was Miss Kate 1). 
Turner, of Cleveland, Ohio, chosen on the 14th of February. 1874. 



ELBRIDGE D. HADLEY, 

I.U VERNE. 

ELBRIDGE DREW HADLEY, the leading lawyer in Rock county, Min- 
nesota, is a son of Enoch Hadley, a farmer, and Mary Ann Bailey, and was 
born in Deering, New Hampshire, on the i6th of September, 1842. The Had- 
leys were from England, and pioneers at Hampstead, New Hampshire. George 
Hadley, the great-grandfather of our subject, went from South Weare, New Hamp- 
shire, into the revolutionary army, serving as captain. A great-uncle of Elbridge 
was once secretary of state, and was a prominent man in New Hampshire twenty- 
five and thirty years ago. 

Young Hadley spent his time in farming, attending school and teaching till 
twenty years of age, preparing for college at Mount Vernon, in his native state, 
but went into the war instead of to college. He enlisted in August, 1862, as first 
sergeant of company D, 14th New Hampshire Infantry; in March, 1864, was 
promoted to second lieutenant of company F, same regiment, and had command 
of it most of the time till September of that year, when he was wounded at the 
battle of Winchester, and unfitted for further service. He resigned in December, 
1864, and was subsequently breveted captain. 

He was an invalid until the autumn of 1865, when he commenced teaching in 
Manchester, New Hampshire, reading law meantime, and in September, 1869, was 
admitted to the bar at Nashua. Mr. Hadley practiced in Manchester till Decem- 
ber, 1871, filling meantime two or three ofifices in the city government. At the 
date just mentioned he went to De Witt, Iowa, practiced there one year, and in 
the autumn of 1872 settled at Luverne, here taking a prominent position at the 
Rock county bar. He is a diligent student, and a growing man in his profession. 

Since settling here Mr. Hadley was deputy register of deeds two years; was 
county attorney and judge of probate simultaneously one term ; was then re- 
elected judge of probate alone, and he is now court commissioner and president 
of the village school board. In many ways he has made and is making himself 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 447 

serviceable to the community. He has selected a beautiful town for his home, and 
seems to be proud in aiding to make it prosper. 

He is a republican and chapter Mason, and was master of the Ben Franklin 
Lodge, No. 114, Luverne, for two years. 

When a resident of Manchester, New Hampshire, Mr. Hadley did more or 
less editorial work on local papers, and in 1873, when the Rock county " Herald " 
was established, he did most of its editing, so continuing to do for two years. He 
is a sharp writer. 

On the 30th of June, 1873, Miss Mary Elizabeth Bourne, daughter of Hon. 
James D. Bourne, of De Witt, Iowa, and the first settler in Clinton county, that 
state, became the wife of Mr. Hadley. They attend the Baptist church. 



HON. ABRAHAM VAN VORHES, 

STILLWATER. 

SAMUEL SMILES' interesting volumes entitled "Brief Biographies" and 
" Self-Help," abound in sketches of just such men as Abraham Van Vorhes. 
He never went to school more than eighteen months in his life, and at fifteen 
years of age, when his school-days ended, he had not mastered " Dilworth's Spell- 
ing-book," — the only text-book in his father's house. When about sixteen or 
seventeen years of age he bought "Workman's Elements of Geography, " written 
by Benjamin Workman, and published by Ebenezer McCulloch, Philadelphia, 
1807. This little work, which he still owns, price sixty-two and one-half cents, 
he took home without knowing its value, and when he read to his father the first 
paragraph, stating that the earth was a globe, revolving on its axis every twenty- 
four hours, his father pshawed at him, and, half in earnest, told the son to burn 
the book. But besides geography it contained a few philosophical problems, 
which after a great deal of preliminary studying, the young man mastered, and 
he declares to-day, at the age of eighty-five, that whatever there is of him, that 
book, by the blessing of Providence, made. It found him an ignorant lad, hardly 
able to read words of three syllables without spelling them, and it led him to 
become a philosophical scholar and an inventor. Men have traveled seventy-five 
or a hundred miles to consult him on philosophical questions, or to get his judg- 
ment on geological specimens. 



448 THR UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

The grandfather of Abraham \'an V'orhes, John \ an X'orhcs, came from Hol- 
land, and settled where part of Brooklyn, New York, now stands. One or two 
branches of the family have dropped the Van. Abraham \^an Vorhes, senior, 
was born at Flat Bush, New York, hut during the revolution was living in New 
Jersey, and belonged to the militia of that state, taking part in the battle of 
Trenton. He subsequently lived in Washington county, Pennsylvania, where 
our subject was born, on the 2d of December, 1793. He was reared a farmer. 

His attention was turned to the mechanics in this wise: A blacksmith in his 
neio^hborhood dying, he bought the shop and tools, intending to put an e.xperi- 
enced workman in it, but failing to secure one, he began to mend chains and 
other articles from time to time, and soon found that he could handle tools with 
dexterity. He went on Irom one stage of progress to another, and found that he 
could repair almost everything, from a common clock to a steam-engine, and that 
he could invent and make tools as well as do repairing. He has made a great 
many stereoscopes, and one of his later philosophical instruments is the gyroscope. 
He has invented a sun-dial adapted to any latitude, and which the " Scientific 
American " pronounces an improvement and patentable. 

In 1832 Mr. Van Vorhes removed to Athens county, Ohio, operating in the 
mechanic arts until 1837, when he became editor of the Hocking Valley " Gazette," 
published at Athens, the county seat, conducting it for six years, his eldest son 
managing it many years afterward. 

W'liile in Ohio he was county treasurer one year ; county surveyor eight 
years; a member of the lower house of the legislature in 1S40; and subsequently 
a member of the state senate for four years. 

In 1849 President Taylor appointed Mr. \'an Vorhes register of the land 
office at .Stillwater, and he settled here in -October of that 3'^ear, holding that 
office till 1853. 

In 1854 (jovernor Ramsey a[)p()inti'd liim t(;rritorial auditor. He was in the 
territorial legislature in 1856, and in i860 was appointed by the governor to 
assist in locating the capitol lands and part of the university lands. He has 
been surveyor of Washington count)' eight or nine years, holding that office and 
performing its duties when in his eightieth year. 

The politics of Mr. Van Vorhes were first whig, and then and now republican. 

He joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church in 1832, and there being no 
church of that name here, he belongs to the Presbyterian church. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 449 

In 181 7 he married Miss Mary Workman Vorhes, of Washington county, 
Pennsylvania, a member of that branch of the family that had dropped the Van. 
She had eight children, and died in 1862. Six of the children, two sons and four 
daughters, are living. Andrew Jackson Vorhes, the deceased son, established the 
Stillwater " Messenger" in 1856 ; conducted it till 1862 ; then M^ent into the army 
as a captain ; was for one term clerk of the supreme court of Minnesota, and died 
in 1872. Nelson Holmes Van Vorhes, the eldest son, was colonel of the 92d 
Ohio Infantry in the civil war; has been three times speaker of the Ohio legisla- 
ture, and is now a member of congress from that state. Henry Clay Van Vorhes, 
the youngest son, is clerk for the Saint Croix Boom Company. The four living 
daughters are married, — Elmira, the eldest, to William Brown, of Athens, Ohio ; 
Jane C. to J. H. Coulter, of Brownsville, Pennsylvania; Elizabeth C. to J. H. Fos- 
ter, of Fort Madison, Iowa, and Jane, the youngest daughter, to Harvey D. Cut- 
ler, postmaster at Stillwater; Louisa S. was the wife of C. Bromley, of .Stillwater, 
when she died. 



NEHEMIAH P. CLARKE, 

SA/A'-r CLOUD. 

NEHEMIAH PARKER CLARKE, one of the most prominent business- 
men in Minnesota, is a son of Shepherd Clarke, a ph)sician, and Mary Ann 
Dickinson, and was born at Hubbardston, Worcester county, Massachusetts, on 
the 8th of April, 1836. 

At fourteen years of age the subject of this sketch spent a short time in Ken- 
tucky ; returned to New England ; attended school one and a half years in \'er- 
mont ; at seventeen went to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he clerked in a 
hardware store, and at twenty (1856) came to Saint Cloud. 

Here for two or three years he was engaged in the hardware and stove busi- 
ness, then changed to general merchandise, and continued in that line for a 
dozen years or more. 

Latterly Mr. Clarke has been engaged in farming, lumbering, contracting and 
staging. He has three stock farms in Stearns and Sherburne counties, one of 
them of two thousand acres, with a creamery and cheese factory, one hundred 
head of short-horn and fifty of Jerseys, the best of Hambletonian and Clydesde 
horses, Berkshire hogs, Cotswold sheep, and other blooded stock. He has the 



45° THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

largest and best herds of cattle in the state, and leads in the number of premiums 
taken at state fairs. Is doing an extensive lumber business, in company with 
Thomas C. McClure, and is a member of the Northwest Express, Stage and 
Transportation Company, which also includes Russell Blakeley, C. W. Carpenter, 
Peter Siems, and has between four hundred and five hundred teams, hauling 
freight and running a daily line of stages from Bismarck to the Black Hills. 

No busier or more energetic man than Mr. Clarke lives in these parts, his 
great aim seeming to be to develop the resources of the country, and at the same 
time to place himself in independent circum.stances. For office, and honors in 
that direction, he evidently cares nothing. He was clerk of the court here at an 
early day, — all the office of the least consequence, as far as we can learn, that he 
ever held. His politics are republican. 

On the 1 2th of September, i860, Miss Caroline E. Field, of Roxbury, now a 
part of Boston, Massachusetts, became the wife of Mr. Clarke, and they have 
three children, Charlotte E., Mary A. and Ellen L. 



WILLIAM J. HAHN, 

r.AKE CITT. 

WILLIAM JOHN HAHN is a native of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, and 
was born on the 5th of November, 1841. His parents belonged to the 
agricultural class, and were named Joseph and Lavinia H. (Mitchell) Hahn. His 
great-grandfather Hahn emigrated from Germany many years prior to the revo- 
lution, and settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where the grandfather of 
William was born. The latter entered the continental army when he was quite 
young, as a private, though he afterward held the commission of captain, and 
served all through the war. He served purely as a patriot, as he generously 
refused to draw pay for his services. The Mitchells were .Scotch-Irish, and early 
settlers in the " Keystone State." The early years of our subject were spent upon 
his father's farm, and in attendance at thr district school ; later ])repared for col- 
lege at the academy at .Academia, [uniata county. Entering upon his studies, 
resolved to finish the course as soon as possible, he accomplislied in two years' 
time three years' work, but the strain was too much for his health, which became 
impaired, and he was reluclanlly compelled to abandon a collegiate course. Not 






THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 451 

long did he remain idle, however, for having determined to follow the legal pro- 
fession he entered the office of D. W. Woods, of Lewiston, and read law for one 
year. About this time (1863) Mr. Hahn had an attack of the "western fever," 
which resulted in immigrating from his native state to Lake City, Wabasha coun- 
ty, Minnesota, his present home. Here for the two succeeding years he was 
principal of the graded school ; then entered the law office of Messrs. Ottman and 
Scott and devoted another year to legal studies ; at the end of this time returned 
to Pennsylvania, and spent about nine months in the law office of Pemberton 
Morris, Philadelphia, attending a law school at the same time, returning to Lake 
City in the spring of 1867. Mr. Hahn was admitted to the bar that year at the 
May term of court. He immediately formed a partnership with W. W. Scott, 
then county attorney, for the practice of his profession. In 1872 Mr. Hahn was 
elected county attorney ; reelected in 1871 and again in 1S76. In 1878 he was 
nominated again for the same office, but declined to be a candidate. In his pro- 
fessional career Mr. Hahn has enjoyed good success. During the time he had 
the office of county attorney he drew up over two hundred indictments, and out 
of that number only two were upset. For the length of time and number of cases 
the low percentage is remarkably small. He now devotes his whole time and 
attention to his practice, which is quite large. His position at the Wabasha 
county bar is an assured and an enviable one. His legal abilities are thus spoken 
of by a prominent Minnesota judge : 

Mr. Hahn deservedly occupies a high ranlc as a lawyer. He is not only well " read up " in the 
law, but his mind is naturally unusually clear and discriminating, thus enabling him always clearly 
and accurately to detect the material and pivotal questions involved in every case in which he is 
engaged. In the practice of his profession he is always controlled by the highest sense of honor, dis- 
daining to resort to tricks or quibbles, never taking any position before either court or jury which he 
does not believe to be correct. Consequently, he is always listened to with interest by both. Although 
modest and unassuming, he always advocates his positions with that earnestness which always comes 
from a clear conception of an idea and an honest conviction of its correctness. 

His principal office Is at Lake City, but he also has one at Wabasha, the 
county seat, opened in 1877, in partnership with his brother-in-law, James E. 
Martin, Esq. 

Mr. Hahn is a republican, and takes considerable interest in political matters, 
though not as a seeker for office, as he prefers rather to attend strictly to his pro- 
fession. In 1876 his name was used in connection with the attorney-generalship 
of the state, but without his knowledge. 

He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 



452 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

On the i6th of September, 1868, in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, Mr. llahn 
was wedded to Miss E. Lauretta, daughter of James M. Martin. The fruits of 
this union are four ciiildrcn, Emil\- L., Roland Bruce, Lavinia M. and Clara. 



HON. WILLIAM C. YOUNG, 

WASECA. 

WILLIAM COLLINS YOUNG, postmaster at Waseca, and son of Henry 
and Philena ( Kellogg) Young, was born in the town of Fenner, Madison 
county, New York, on the loth of August, 1826. His grandfather, Henry Young, 
came from England, and settled in Martha's \'ineyard, Massachusetts, where the 
father of our subject was born. The maternal grandfather of William was a rev- 
olutionary soldier, and died in the service of his country. 

The subject of this notice finished his education with a term or two at the 
Cazenovia Seminary, and subsequently learned the trade of his father — that of 
carpenter and joiner, teaching school fourteen winters. He also took lessons in 
architecture in Buffalo, New York, at the suggestion of his father, who was an 
experienced architect. 

Mr. Young worked at his trade in Cattaraugus county, New York, before he 
was of age, and afterward in and near Madison, Wisconsin. He was at the latter 
place when the civil war broke out; raised a company for the 8th Wisconsin In- 
fantry ; became captain of company E ; was promoted to major of that regiment in 
the summer of 1864; was in twenty-seven battles and skirmishes, and half-a-dozen 
sieges, and received only one slight wound, being in the service a little more than 
three years. 

In April, 1865, Major Young came to Minnesota; bought a farm three miles 
from where Waseca now stands ; put his family on it, where they remained for 
seven years, he meanwhile continuing to work at his trade. He built several 
business and dwelling houses and churches in Waseca, which was started in 1867, 
and in 1872 he moved his family into town. He is one of the leading citizens ol 
•Waseca; has been postmaster since January, 1876, and is a popular official. 

Major Young was a member of the Minnesota house in 1870, and of the sen- 
ate in 1871 (short term), and while in that body in 1870 was instrumental in 
yettino" the county seat removed from Wilton to Waseca. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 453 

He was a whig in earl)' life, and attended, at Madison, Wisconsin, the conven- 
tion which organized the republican party. He has been a hard worker in that 
party since 1855, often attending state and other conventions. He glories in the 
work and history of the great " party of freedom." 

His religious connection is with the Protestant Episcopal church, and his 
social and moral standincr is in the front rank. 

Miss Caroline Kingsley, a sister of Bishop Kingsley, of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church, became the wife of Major Young on the 12th of July, 1847, and they 
have four children, all married but Eugene W., who is just graduating from Carl- 
ton College, Northfield, Minnesota. 



ASA E. JOHNSON, M.D., 

M/NNEAPOLJS. 

AS a representative of the medical profession, and also as an old settler, none 
^ are more worthy of record in these pages than Asa Emery Johnson. He 
is a native of Bridgewater, Oneida county. New York, and born on the i6th of 
March, 1825. His father was Martin Johnson, a farmer. His mother, whose 
maiden name was Aurelia Richardson, died when Asa was but one week old. 

He is descended from an old Connecticut family of Johnsons whose ancestor 
came from England at an early day. Asa's great-grandfather was a soldier in the 
continental army, and his grandfather, John Johnson, was in the war of 181 2-15. 
His oreat-ijrandmother lohnson was a native of Scotland. 

Asa spent his youth upon a farm, and was partially educated at Bridgewater 
Academy. When twenty years old he set out on an adventurous trip to the west, 
and came as far as Ypsilanti, Michigan, a distance of several hundred miles, on 
foot. Here he worked through one season of haying, and then pushed on to 
Lisbon, Kendall county, Illinois. Here he engaged some land "on the shares," 
and went to farming tor himself; hauled his grain to Chicago with o.xen, taking- 
five or six days to make a round trip. 

During the winter of 1845-46 Mr. Johnson worked for his board, and attended 
the Lisbon Seminary, two miles distant, where he paid special attention to the 
classics. In the spring of 1846 his father came west, and the two proceeded on a 
prospecting tour through Illinois and Wisconsin; after which they returned to 



454 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



Bridcrewater, where Asa acain entered the academy in his native place. Havinsj 
determined on tiie medical profession, he read four months with Dr. Kellogg, of 
Bridgewalcr ; then went to Unadilla Forks, Otsego county, New York, and fin- 
ished readirig witli 1 )r. Hrastus King; after which he attended lectures in the 
medical department of the University of New York, and graduated on the ibth 
of March, 1S50. Dr. Johnson immediately removed to Beloit. Wisconsin, where 
he practiced three years. On the 29th of May, 1853, he arrived at Saint Anthony, 
where he still lives, it being now included in Minneapolis. During a residence of 
twenty-five years here he has been absent from his |)ractice only six months, then 
traveling for his health. His general practice has been good, and he enjoys an 
excellent rejjutation as surgeon as well as oculist. When he hrst settled here 
the Sioux had just left their reservation (the present site of Minneapolis) and 
were camped- opposite .Saint Paul. The white settlers were widely scattered, 
there being only about twelve thousand inhabitants in the territory, and the 
Doctor, in his extended practice, occasionally had to ride one hundred miles to 
visit his patients. 

Dr. Johnson, with others, in Januar\', i 873, organized the Minnesota Academy 
of Natural Science, at Minneapolis, and he was its first president for three years, 
and is holding the same office now, antl gives much time and attention to build- 
ing up the institution ; he also devotes much of his leisure time to the study ol 
cryptoganiic botany, having a great taste for that subject. He has made an elab- 
orate report of the fungi of this state, representing seven hundred and fift\' 
species; he is also much interested in scientific matters relating to the antic[uity 
of the world; has explored many of the works of the "mound-builders" in this 
stale, has made some original discoveries, and written and published works on 
man's antiquity. 

Dr. Johnson was county physician one term, and at present occupies a posi- 
tion on the local board of health ; is member of the state medical board, and 
helped organize the Hennepin County Medical .Society. He was also connected 
with Rock Count)' Medical Society, Wisconsin. 

Dr. Johnson was wedded to Miss Rosenia II. Russell, of Beloit, Wisconsin, 
on the 16th of March, 1853. They had two chiUlren born to them, onl)- one ot 
whom survives, — Rosenia Aurelia, born 1865. 

If there be any virtue in coincidence of dates, the Doctor should be specially 
favored of fortune : having been born on the i6th of March, it has curiously hap- 



I 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 455 

pened that he began to study medicine, graduated, and was married on the same 
day of the same month as the date of his birth. The success of Dr. Johnson 
is the result of almost unexampled clear grit and a determination to win. When 
he first desired to study medicine his father opposed him and refused to help 
him, although abundantly able to do so. Nothing daunted, the would-be doctor, 
determined to go ahead. In order to make himself presentable, he cut cord- 
wood at twenty-five cents a cord to get money with which to buy him a suit of 
clothes. At one time, while reading medicine, he sheared sheep at three cents a 
head ; at other times he engaged to work after-hours to paint horse-rakes for six 
cents a piece ; alter leaving Ypsilanti, on his way to Lisbon, he would sleep dur- 
ing the nights by haystacks and in the fields, in order to save what little money he 
had earned. Nothing less than death can prevent such a bo)- as that from being 
successful, and his disposition is worthy of emulation by every young man start- 
ing in life. 



RUDOLPH LEHMICKE, 

STILLWATER. 

THE subject of this sketch, the judge of probate of Washington county, is a 
native of Prussia, a son of Victor Lehmicke, farmer, and Ernestine Weidner, 
dating his birth at near Merseburg, November 14, 1823. He had only a common- 
school education ; learned the cabinet and piano business ; served three years in 
the army, 3d Uhlan regiment, and came to this country in the autumn of 1849, 
landing in New York city. He worked eighteen months at his trade in Pough- 
keepsie, on the Hudson river; between two and three years at Coldwater, Mich- 
igan; settled in Stillwater in October, 1854; here worked at his trade until the 
early part of 1857 ; then opened a store ; was elected justice of the peace in the 
autumn following; closed out his mercantile business in one short year; com- 
menced studying law, and was admitted to the bar in April, 1859. After practic- 
ing one year, being elected county auditor, he took the office, and held it till 
March, 1874. In the autumn of the next year he was elected judge of probate, 
and still holds the office. He was city superintendent of schools in 1S71 and 
1S72, was a member and treasurer of the school board for some time, and is now 
in the state board of equalization. A more conscientious, reliable man it would 
be difficult to find in the state. 



456 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Lehmicke was a republican till 1S72, and since that time has been liberal 
or independent. 1 le votes for the best men. 

He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and has been an elder for eight 
or nine years — a man loving " the gates of Zion," and always at his post of chris- 
tian duty. He is a past-grand templar in the Temple of Honor in the state, and 
representative to the supreme council, and is master of Saint John Lodge, No. i, 
Stillwater Masons. 

Mr. Lehmicke has been married since the 19th ot bebruar)-. 1S53, his wife 
being Miss Jennie Tackaberry. of Coldwater, Michigan. They have had ten 
children, and lost three of them. 



HON. LUCAS K. STANNARD, 

TA rijlirs FALLS. 

LUCAS KINGSBURY STANNARD. a superb sample of the Vermont 
■^ schoolmaster and ciphering Yankee, was born in Georgia, Franklin count)-, 
on the 6th of July, 1825. His parents, Samuel and Rebecca Pattee Stannard, 
belonged to the industrious farming class, and reared their children to work. 
Both grandparents ol Lucas were in the struggle for freedom from the British 
yoke. -Samuel Stannard, senior, was a shoemaker, and spent that memorable 
winter at X'alley P^orge in making shoes, moccasins and "snow packs," or their 
equivalents, for the barefooted soldiers. The subject ot this sketch has a cane, 
a patriotic heirloom, used by this grandparent at V'alley Porge. 

Mr. Stannard early learned the art of raising corn, and the various cereals 
which will orrow on the Green Mountains; fitted himself, bv means of the district 
school and application to text-books in the chimney-corner, for a teacher at seven- 
teen years of age, and planted and hayed in the springs and summers, and taught 
in the autumns and winters for several \ears. During this period he also read 
law with Hon. Benjamin 11. Smalley and Hon. Asa Owen Aldis, of Saint Albans, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1850. 

hi 1S52 Mr.'Stannard visited the Falls of the Saint Croi.x ; became a " fixture"; 
sold brown sugar, calico and red llannrl pantaloons for Taylor and P"ox for three 
years, and since then has practiced law, legislated, lumliered, and sold goods on 
his own hook. Sinc(- 1872 he has been of the mercantile firm of p^llison and 
.Stannard, one ot the leading houses in the i)!ace. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 457 

During the years that Mr. Stannard was logging, history would seem to indi- 
cate that he did some "log-rolling." He was in the territorial legislature in the 
session of 1856-57; was a member of the constitutional convention in 1857; was 
the republican candidate for secretary of state the same year ;- was a member of 
the senate two years, not long after Minnesota became a state ; was a member of 
the house in 1871; was receiver of the land office at Taylor's Falls from 1861 to 
1870, and was prosecuting attorney for Chisago county some years ago, and 
judge of probate at a more recent date. He has shown himself capable of filling, 
with much credit, any position to which the county or state has called him. He 
does everything with equal facility and faithfulness, whether it be to make laws, 
plead cases, record deeds, or measure logs and tape. He was a prominent mem- 
ber of the constitutional convention, and more than one of the best articles in 
that instrument exhibits his handiwork. 

The wife of Mr. .Stannard was Miss Harriet Newell Stevenson, a native of 
Maine, and educated at the Northfield (New Hampshire) Seminary; they were 
married in September, 1858, and of four children they have only one, Luke, aged 
nineteen, living. 



CAPTAIN MAHLON BLACK, 

MINNEAPOIAS. 

FEW men are as well acquainted with the territory comprised in the State of 
Minnesota, or have traveled over as much of it, as the subject of this sketch. 
He traversed its rivers, hills, valleys and wilds while yet in possession of the 
Indians, surveying and locating lands for the government. Mr. Black, distant 
relative of Hon. J. Black, is a native of Hamilton county, Ohio, where lived his 
parents, David and Rachel (Hunter) Black, and dates his birth October 4, 1820. 
His great-grandfather Black came from Scotland ; the exact date we cannot give, 
owing to the absence of authentic records, but certainly it was more than a cen- 
tury ago, for his son David, grandfather of Mahlon, was one of America's naval 
officers during the revolution. David Black, soldier in 1812-15, a follower of 
agricultural pursuits, was born in Kentucky, and died in Keokuk, Iowa, while on 
a journey west to settle his son's estate, in 1846. 

Mahlon spent his youth in working on his father's farm, attending the com- 
mon school and the neighboring Madisonville Academy. When seventeen he 



45^ THE UMTED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

beijan the study of medicine, which he continued off and on till 1842, when he 
attended a course of lectujes in. the Cincinnati Medical College. Giving up his 
desire to practice, he did not take a tliploma. but at once emigrated to Minnesota, 
then mostly included in Iowa Territorw Here he made but a short stop, going 
directly to Menomonee, Wisconsin, where he engaged with his father in settling 
his brother William's estate, being in the lumbering business from 1842 to 1846. 
The next year he became connected with the government survey of what is now 
Wisconsin and Minnesota, and spent about eight months in that capacity, after 
which he located at Stillwater, Minnesota. Here, with the exception of the time 
he was in the army, Mr. Black made his liome tor twenty years, engaged mostly 
in lumbering and surveying. 

He was a member of the first, third and last territorial legislatures, and also 
of the extra session ol 1857; was elected mayor of Stillwater in i860, and re- 
elected without opposition. He resigned during his second term to enter the 
army. 

In January, 1862, he enlisted in an independent company oi sharpshooters, 
which was assigned to the army of the Potomac. Entering the service a private, 
he was gradually promoted until he received a captain's commission; was pro- 
vost-marshal of second division, second army corps, and one of General Gibbon's 
staff officers. Captain Black was the leader ol his company ;d)out twf) out of the 
thr(;e years he served, making a good soldier and an (efficient officer. He was 
actively engaged in fifty-four pitched battles, where there were over one hundred 
thousand men fiorhtinLr on each side. He was wounded four times, and once 
quite severely in the left arm, being met on the point of a bayonet in leading his 
company on a charge on a fortified position at Petersburgh. Captain Black was 
honorably discharged from service on the expiration of his enlistment, on the 3d 
of January, 1865, being near the close of the war. His commander, (General 
Thos. A. Sm)th, ])repared a special certificate of discharge and presented it to 
Captain Black, in token of his esteem and appreciation of his soldierl\- and manly 
qualities. Upon its face are recorded the names of nearly all oi the battles in 
which he participated, and also the following testimonial over the signature ol 
General Smyth: "A gallant and accomplished officer, and a finished gentleman." 

Returning to his home in .Stillwater, he stayed there until 1867, when he 
removed to Minneapolis, where he has since lived. Hi;re he was employed as 
land examiner, and in locating lands for General W. D. Washburn, about three 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 459 

years, having, at the same time, charge of General C. C. and E. B. Washburne's 
pine lands, of which they were extensive owner. 

In 1874 Mr. Black was elected auditor of Hennepin county, and is now serv- 
ine his second term. Naturally industrious, and straightforward in the conduct 
of his affairs, he attends to the duties of his position in a manner that gives satis- 
faction to all. 

In politics, Mr. Black was originally a democrat, but since the war he has 
been independent in his opinions, and votes tor what he considers best for the 
people. He is an Odd-Fellow, and the hrst one ever initiated in Minnesota, 
being admitted under the jurisdiction of the United .States Grand Lodge in 
August, 1849. 

On the 2 1 St of September, 1850, Mr. Black married Miss Jane M. Stough, of 
Pennsylvania. They have one child, Emma H. Black. 



HON. HARVEY H. JOHNSON, 

OWATONNA. 

HARVEY HULL JOHNSON, one of the first railroad builders in Minne- 
sota, and a native of Rutland county, Veirmont, was born on the 7th of 
September, 1808. His father, Zina Johnson, and his gi'andfather, John Johnson, 
were farmers, and when the British came through Vermont, in the summer of' 
I 777, the latter took his family and hastened toward Bennington, where he fought 
under General Stark. Harvey was born at the old homestead, where his grand- 
father settled more than a hundred years ago. He belongs to a race of farmers, 
and was reared as one ot the number. The maiden name of his mother was 
Luc\' Deland, a descendant of a Massachusetts family. 

In his youth, the subject of this brief biography took to books rather than 
farm work, and did a great deal of hard mental labor out of school, finishing his 
literary education at the Rutland Academy about the time he was of age, attend- 
ing there when work was the least hurrying on the farm. He had a hard time 
in securing his education, and early learned the value of time. 

He read law with Royal H. Waller, of Rutland ; was there admitted to the 
bar in 1833; moved to Akron, then in Portage, now in Summit county, Ohio; was 
there in practice until 1846, serving as postmaster part of the time, and one term 



460 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

as mayor; moved to the new 1\ -formed county of Ashland, in the same state, 
locating at Ashland village, and there continued his law practice. 

While residing in Ashland county Mr. Johnson represented the fourteenth 
district in congress (the thirty-third), being in that body when the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill was under discussion. He was renominated by his, the democratic, 
party, but beaten by the newly-risen "know-nothing" or American party. 

In 1855 Mr. Johnson came to Minnesota, under appointment of President 
Pierce, to take the testimony of three or tour of the tribes of the Dakota nation, 
to see who were entitled to reservations oi lands near Lake Pepin. He settled 
in Winona, and for nine or ten years was president of the Transit (now Winona 
and Saint Peter) Railroad Compan\', he being one ot the originators ol that 
enterprise, and completing the road as far as Rochester. 

Ten years after settling in this state Mr. Johnson removed to his present 
home, where he is engaged in the practice of law. He is a member ol the Pres- 
byterian church, and a man of irreproachable moral character. 

Miss Calista F. Munger, of Rutland, Vermont, became the wife of Mr. John- 
son ill 1835, and was the mother of nine children, si.\ of them yet living. She 
died in 1871. All the living children were married except Jerome C, the youngest. 
Richard is an attorne) in the Territory of Idaho; Agnes is the wife oi J.C. 
Hansel, of Peoria. Illinois; Calista V. is the widow of George W. Sawyer; Lucy 
P^ is the wife of Clark Chambers, of .Steele county, Minnesota, and Robert H. 
is an insurance ayent and oeneral collector at Owatonna. 



HON. IGNATIUS F. O'FERRALL, 

CIIATFIELD. 

IGNATIUS FRANCIS O'FERRALL was born on the 2Sth of November, 
1825, at Ilagerslovvn, Maryland, though the home of his parents, John and 
Eliza (Humerickouse) OTerrall, was in Morgan count), now West Virginia. 
The O'Ferrall family descended from Rossius, son of Rodricus Magnus, or Rory 
Mor, eight\-si.xth monarch of Ireland, and Maud, (jueen of Connaught, from 
whom was descended P'ergal, king of Conmacne, whose great-grandson, Braon, 
was the first to assume the surname of O'Ferrall. Ignatius O'P'errall, grand- 
father of our subject, came to America before the revolution, and settled in 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 463 

Berkeley county, now West Virginia. He was a member of the state legislature, 
as was also John 0'F"errall, father of I. F. O'Ferrall. 

The last-named gentleman spent his youth and early manhood in Virginia ; 
in 1849 became absorbed in the great wave of gold-seekers that swept overland 
to the Pacific coast ; there mined one year, and then engaged in the mercantile 
business at the city of Marysville. At the same time he became interested in a 
steamboat company started in opposition to the great California Steam Naviga- 
tion Company, and which was managed with such success that it retired with a 
dividend of five per cent a month on the stock. 

Having returned from California, in lune, 1S56, Mr. O'Ferrall located at Chat- 
field, and went into the real-estate business; thus continued until he, in 1862, 
struck for Nevada, where he dealt in silver-mininti' stocks at Virginia Citv, hav- 
inof excellent success. 

While in Nevada Mr. O'Ferrall was tax-collector of Storey county for two 
years, collecting nearly two millions of dollars, and receiving the highest com- 
mendations of all parties for the faithfulness of his work. 

In the summer ol 1867 we find Mr. O'Ferrall in Chatfield once more, where 
he has made a permanent settlement. He became connected with Chief fustice 
Ripley, now of Concord, Massachusetts, in the real-estate business, and has been 
alone in it since 1874, when, owing to ill health, his partner returned to the east. 

Mr. O'Ferrall is a successful operator, and is in very comfortable, we may 
say independent, circumstances. His accumulations are the result of shrewd 
calculations and strictly honest dealings, and he has an excellent name among 
his neighbors. 

He was elected to the state senate in 1859 ; served in December of that year, 
when his seat was contested, and he lost it. He. has often been chairman of the 
town board ot supervisors; is now president of the village council, and is a citizen 
of great business capacities and usefulness. He has a kind heart, as the poor of 
Chatfield can testify. 

Mr. O'Ferrall is vice-president of the Chatfield Railroad Company, Albert 
Keep, of Chicago, being president, and has just had his long and ardently cher- 
ished hopes of a railroad to Chatfield realized. In November, 1878, the cars 
commenced running from this place to Eyota, on the Winona and Saint Peter 
branch of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad ; thus, after nearly twenty-five 
years' seclusion, Chatfield has a railroad connection with the commercial world. 

53 



464 THE UN /TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

To secure for this town the consummation of this all-important enterprise, no 
man in Chatheld worked harder or more efficiently than Mr. O'Ferrall. 

In politics, he is an unwaverint^r democrat, and in i860 was appointed a dele- 
gate to the national convention which met at Charleston, South Carolina, but 
did not attend. lie: has olten been a delegate to state conventions. He is 
a chapter Mason, and has held various offices in the order. 

The wife of Mr. (3'Ferrall was Miss Amelia Harris, a daughter of Captain D. 
S. Harris, of Galena, Illinois, and a pioneer steamboat captain on the upper Miss- 
issippi, their union taking place on the Sth of December, 1857. Of five children, 
the fruit of this union, only Medora, aged thirteen, is living. When Mr. and 
Mrs. O'Ferrall were married they took their wedding tour to New Orleans, and 
on their return trip by water the steamboat Colonel Crossman exploded her 
boiler and took hre, and many passengers were lost. Mr. O'Ferrall, seeing the 
danger, lashed some door shutters together with a clothes-line, and thus buoyed 
up himself and wife, and floated half an hour in the icy water before they were 
picked up. They were the only party on board, some member oi which was not 
burned to death or drowned. 



HON. GEORGE B. YOUNG, 

SAINT PAUL. 

GEORGE BROOKS YOUNG, son of the late Rev. Alexander ^■oung, D.D., 
for many years a Unitarian clergyman in Boston, and of Caroline his wife, 
nee James, comes of a family long resident in Massachusetts, and was born in 
Boston, on the 25th of July, 1840. He was educated in the j)ublic schools of his 
native; city; entered Harvard College in 1856, and was graduated thereh'om in 
i860. He read law in Boston, in the law school at Cambridge, from which he 
was graduated in 1863. and in the city of New York, where he was admitteti to 
the bar in 1864. After a few years' practice in that cit\' lu; removed, in April, 1870. 
to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and there continued the practice of his profession. 
In April, 1874, at the age of thirty-three, Mr. Young was appointed by Governor 
Davis an associate justice of the supreme court of the state, to fdl the vacancy 
occasioned by the resignation of Chief justice Riplc)', and the ap])ointment of 
Mr. Justice McMillan to the chief-justiceship. He held that (jtifice until January, 



I 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 465 

1875, when Hon. F. R. E. Cornell, who had been elected b\- the people the pre- 
vious autumn, became his successor. 

Since May, 1875, ^i"' Young- has resided in Saint Paul, engaged in the practice 
of law in partnership with Stanford Newel, Esq., in the law firm of Young and 
Newel. He is also reporter of the decisions of the supreme court of Minnesota. 

He was married in September, 1870, to Miss Ellen O. Fellows, daughter of 
the late Daniel Fellows, Esq., of Edgartown, Massachusetts. 

Mr. Young has taken no active part in politics, and retains the religious opin- 
ions in which he was educated. His judicial opinions are characterized by schol- 
arly diction, by a terse explicitness which leaves no room for misconstruction, and 
by most conclusive evidence that the hearing of the subject under consideration 
has been tull\' presented in a compact result. 



ARA D. SPRAGUE, 

CALEDONIA. 

ONE of the first merchants to open a store in Caledonia, the shire town of 
Houston county, was Ara David Sprague, son of David and Anna (Cun- 
ningham) Sprague. He is of Scotch-Irish extraction, his grandfather emigrating 
from the old world and settling in New Eny;land before the revolution. His 
father moved from Massachusetts to the .State of New York when a young man, 
and there, in Richfield, Otsego county, Ara was born, on the 29th of January, 
1824. When' he was eleven years old the family moved to Exeter, in the same 
county. David .Sprague was a farmer, and the son worked at home until twenty 
years of age, supplementing a common-school education with three terms at a 
select school. 

In 1845 Mr. Sprague went to western New York, and, with his headquarters at 
Springville, Erie county, traveled three years in the patent-medicine business, his 
field being western New York, Pennsylvania, and a few ot the western states. 

In 1850 Mr. Sprague pushed westward, and commenced selling notions at 
wholesale on the road ; soon lost his health, and was laid up for nearly two years, 
and when he had recovered he resumed the same business, continuing it until the 
autumn of 1854, when he located at Caledonia. Here he purchased four lots and 
a house, and commenced trading in a log building on a small scale. 



466 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In 1 8s 7 he built a frame store, enlarged liis slock, and has been a leading 
merchant iVoni tlu- start. Four or live years ago he clianged from dry-goods to 
hardware, his nephews conducting the business in the former line. He has the 
reputation of being a fair dealer, and is the most successful merchant in th(r 
county. In |une, rSys.he commenced banking here, in company with Mr. J. C. 
Easton, of Chalheld, the house ol .Sprague and Easton being the only bankers 
in Caledonia. 

Mr. SpragLK' owns seventeen farms in Houston county, all impro\ed, and some 
of them (|uite large, and he has also wild lands in other parts of the state. Few, 
if anv, merchants in southern Minnesota ha\'e done a more thritty business and 
been more successful than Mr. Sprague. He owes his success largely to the tact 
that he has alwa\s taken care ot his business, never trusting it to take care ot liim. 

He was educated in the whig school of politics, and became a republican when 
that party was formed, but has had ver\' little to do with |)olitics or office. He is 
a Master Mason. 

Years ago he helped to organize the Caledonia and Mississippi Railroad 
Company, intending to Ijuild a road from this point to Sumner, on the ri\-er, and 
was one of the incorporators and the vice-president of the company. The road 
is graded most of the way; he has several thousand dollars in the enterprise, but 
the grading is not yet completed. He is a man of thorough-going business hal)its, 
and cpiite public-spirited. 

Miss Ella Williams, of Caledonia, was married to Mr. Sprague in June, 1857, 
and they have four children, — three sons and one daughter: Anna Catharine, 
Arthur DeWitt, Ellsworth Ara, and Robert David. 



HON. HENRY C. WAITE, 

SAINT CLOUD. 

AMONG the pioneers in Stearns county, Minnesota, and one of its leading 
^ business-men, is Henry Chester Waite, a native of Rensselaerville, Albany 
count)-. New York. He is a son of Chester and Nancy V'an Dyke Waite, whose 
parents were among the early settlers in that part of the great Empire State. 

The subject of this biographical sketch dates his birth June 30, 1830. When 
he was four or hve years old his parents moved to Chautauqua county, in the 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 467 

western part of the state, halting two or three years in the town of Pomfret, and 
then settling on a farm in the town ot Gerry, where Henry had some experience 
in solid work. He prepared for college at Fredonia and Jamestown, entered the 
junior class of Union college, Schenectady, in 1849, ^^^^ graduated two years 
later; read law with Emory F. Warren, of Sinclairville, and was admitted to the 
bar at a term of the supreme court held at Angelica, Allegany county, in the 
summer of 1853. 

In the autumn of the same year Mr. Waite located at Madison, Wisconsin, 
forming a partnership in the law practice with Alexander F)Otkin, since deceased, 
and Thomas Hood, now a resident of Washington, District of Columbia, the firm 
name being Botkin, Hood and Waite. 

In the spring of 1855, while the Winnebago Indians were vacating this part 
of the Mississippi valley, Mr. Waite settled at Saint Cloud, being the first attor- 
ney to open an office here. After practicing several years he opened a private 
bank, in company with T. C. McClure, and managed it till 1865, when he was 
appointed register of the land office, a position which he held for four years. 

For the last nine or ten years Mr. Waite has been in miscellaneous business — 
farming, milling, merchandising, mining, etc. He has a farm of six hundred and 
forty acres near town, a tlouring-mill at Cold Springs, Stearns county, an interest 
with N. P. Clarke and A. Montgomery in the Avon stave factory and store, and is 
partner in and agent for the Black Hills Mining and Quartz Mill Company, Dakota 
Territory. He has seen a good deal of frontier life, has been an energetic and 
very industrious man, and while he is nearing his fiftieth winter the great labors 
which he has performed and the energies which he has expended begin to tell 
upon his physical system. He has been a very useful as well as industrious man, 
has one of the kindest hearts, and is an invaluable neighbor, esteemed by every- 
body for his generous deeds. 

Mr. Waite was a member of the constitutional convention in 1857, and since 
Minnesota became a state has served one session in the house and two in the 
senate. He is a diligent man, whether working for himself or for the state, and 
having good judgment, as well as practical application, he made a valuable legis- 
lator. In the senate he was chairman ol the railroad and printing committees, 
and on the judiciary committee. 

Mr. Waite joined the republican party at its formation, and has seen no occa- 
sion to abandon it. 



468 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Tlic wife of Mr. Waite was Mrs. Maria D. Paige, daughter of Dr. Shepherd 
Clarke, of Hubbardston, Worcester county, Massachusetts, their marriage occur- 
ring on the 1st of [anuary, i S6o. They have two sons, John Chester, aged eigh- 
teen, and Clarke, aged eleven years. 



JOHN L. SCOFIELD. M.D.. 

NORTH FIELD. 

JOHN LOZIER SCOFIELD, son of Reynolds F. -Scofield, a carpenter and 
oovernment contractor, and Ann Palmer, was born at Stamford, Connecticut, 
on the 23d of July, iSii. The home of his parents at that time was in New 
York city, but his mother was temporarily with her friends in Fairfield count)-. 
This branch of the Scofield family early settled on Long Island. The father of 
our subject was a mechanic in the war of 181 2-15. For some years he had con- 
tracts with the United States oovernmcnt tor orettiny- out live-oak timber, and 
spending a winter in Plorida, when [ohii was about eleven years old, he took his 
son with him. returning the next spring. 

Young Scofield read medicine in New York city, attended a course oj lectures 
in the mc'dical departmcMit of the University ot New York, another course in the 
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and received his diploma from the lat- 
ter institution in 1836. 

Dr. Scofield was practicing in New York city just before the Seminole war 
broke out, and, going to Florida, was for a short period a contract surgeon for 
the United States government. 

About 1839 the Doctor removed to Racine count\-, W'isconsin, where he was 
in practice several years. Just before the close of the Mexican war he accom- 
panied a volunteer Wisconsin regiment into the army as surgeon, and reached 
Mexico just as the war was closing. In 1849 he went to California by the way 
of Utah, and was absent nearly two years. 

In the month of [une, 1855, ^^^- Scofield crossed the Mississippi river and 
settled in Rice county, which has since been his home. Here he has been in 
steady practice, except about eighteen months, which he spent at the south in 
1862 and 1863, as an assistant surgeon of the 4th Minnesota Infantry, Dr. J. H. 
Murphy, surgeon. 



II 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 469 

Dr. Scofield was a member of the territurial legislature during its last session, 
more properly its last two sessions, the members being called together a second 
time. He is a Master Mason, and has held some offices in the order. 

On the 24th of July, 1836, Miss Betsy Ann Dibble, of New York city, became 
the wife of Dr. Scofield. and they have lost two children and have two living. 
George died in the army in 1864, and Catharine in infancy. Francis, the elder 
living son, is a physician, practicing at Ionia, Chickasaw county, Iowa, and Charles 
is a painter, living in Northfield. Roth sons are married and have families. 



HON. WILLIAM R WEBER, 

HOKAH. 

WILLIAM FREDERICK WEBER, son of Frederick and Margaret 
(Bender) Weber, was born in Prussia, on the 12th of January, 1824. 
When he was about ten years old his father died ; three years later (1S39) he 
came to this country with his mother; learned the shoemaker's trade in Dayton, 
Ohio ; was subsequently foreman of a shoe-shop there four or five years, and 
then carried on the shoemaking business till 1856, when he left Dayton and went 
to La Crosse, Wisconsin. In August, 1857, Mr. Weber came to the new town of 
Hokah, and was in the shoe-manufacturing business for several years. In 1868 
he was appointed postmaster, having previously been deputy, and still holds that 
office. Soon after receiving it he went into trade, dealing in general merchandise, 
adding also grain and general produce. Latterly he has dealt in hardware, beino- 
the principal merchant in that line. No man in the place has a better reputation 
for integrit)' and fair dealing. 

Mr. Weber was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in 1872, 
serving on the committees on penitentiary, roads and bridges, and agriculture ; 
was county commissioner four years, a member of the school board still longer, 
and sixteen years chairman of the town board. He is a very useful citizen, self- 
sacrificing, so far as it regards time, for the public good. 

Mr. Weber is a strong republican, and often serves as a delegate to district 
and state conventions ; is a chapter Mason, and has been treasurer of the blue 
lodge and chapter for the last ten or eleven years. He is a member of no church, 
but he and his family worship with the Presbyterians. In moral character he 
stands very fair. 



470 THE UNITED STATES PIOGRAPHTCAL DICTIONARY. 

His wife was Miss Henrietha Uiibiicr, c^t iJayton, Ohio, where they were mar- 
ried on the 2d of July, 1848. They lost one son, George, at the age of eighteen 
years, and have three children living. The elder daughter, Lilly, is the wife of H. 
H. Snure, of Hokah ; John is in his father's store, and Belle is attending school. 

Mr. \\'('l)cr is a self-taught man. He came to this country in his fourteenth 
year, and after that age picked up the best part of his education, accpiiring a 
thorough knowledge of the elementar\- branches, and whatever is necessar)- for 
business purposes; is well read, and can give a logical reason for his political 
faith, and for his belief generally. He has a good mind in a sound body, and has 
never abused cither. 



COLONEL JOHN H. STEVENS, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

JOHN HARRINGTON STEVENS, the pioneer settler and godfather of 
Minneapolis proper, is a native of Lower Canada, and the second son and 
sixth child of the late Gardner Stevens and Deborah Harrington, his wife. His 
parents, whose immediate ancestors were Massachusetts and Connecticut people, 
were themselves natives of X^ermont, and immigrated from there to one of the 
eastern townships of Lower Canada, where our subject was born on the r^th of 
June, 1820. 

The .Stevens family were among the earl)- colonists, and in the Colonel's veins 
there Hows the best of New England blood. The famih' trace their descent to 
some of the dusky Moors, who, during the wars of Alhambra, were taken captives 
to France, where, many years afterward, they became known as French Hugue- 
nots. \\\ later years persecution drove them from France to England, and thence, 
in the seventeenth century, they emigrated to New England, coming over with 
other Puritan families in the MayHower. Since that time the family have ex- 
panded all over the continent, many of them having occupied high positions in 
the councils of the national as well as state governments. 

The mother of Colonel Stevens was the only daughter of Dr. John Harring- 
ton, who was a surgeon in the war for independence, and who died at Brooktield, 
.Vermont, in 1804. His grandfather Stevens also served through the revolu- 
tionary war. Gardner Stevens was a large farmer, possessed ol considerable 
wealth, an intelligent and inlluential citizen, and gave his sons a liberal educa- 





'-^^-^^^ 



-% ' irSll&ni,SmrVl:m:U^St2ror 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 473 

tion. At an early day John determined to become a pioneer in the settlement 
of the far west, and his first move was to the lead mines of Illinois and Wis- 
consin. After war with Mexico had been declared he entered the military ser- 
vice, serving with the army of invasion throughout that struggle. After the close 
of the war Colonel Stevens, still impelled by the spirit of adventure and desire 
for frontier life, pushed his way to the far north, Into the Territory of Minnesota, 
which had just been set off from that of Iowa. He settled on the original town 
site of Minneapolis, on the west bank of the Mississippi, and opposite the pic- 
turesque Falls of Saint Anthony, where he lived, solitary and alone, with the 
Indians, who at that time were quite numerous in this section. The nearest 
habitation of white men west of the river was Fort Snelling, and indeed there 
was no other for hundreds of miles. Since that time such vast changes have sur- 
rounded him as but few men have witnessed in the short space of thirty years. 
Coming here when the country was wild, and unbroken by marks of civilization, 
and held by savage tribes of hostile Indians, he has lived to see grow up from his 
humble, primitive home a city of near fifty thousand souls, and at the present age 
of fifty-eight years, should his life be spared to the three-score years and ten, he 
will probably see a city of over one hundred thousand inhabitants. To this won- 
derful prosperity and development of its resources and industries Colonel Ste- 
vens has contributed very largely by his liberal policy in an early day, and by the 
fruits of his pen during later years. In the agricultural and horticultural pursuits 
of the state he has always taken a leading, active interest. 

He has frequently been honored with seats in the senate and house of repre- 
sentatives of the state legislature, and has held other offices of high trust and 
honor, both civil and military, with such success as reflects much credit on his 
abilities. 

On the loth of May, 1850, Colonel Stevens was married, at Rockford, Illinois, 
to Miss Frances Helen Miller, a lady of refinement and education, daughter of 
Abner Miller, of Westmoreland, Oneida county. New York. By this luiion they 
have had six children : Mary E., the first white child born in Minneapolis, on the 
30th of April, 1851, died in her seventeenth year, just as she was blossoming into 
rich, beautiful womanhood ; Kittie D., a graduate of the Minneapolis Female .Sem- 
inary, is the wife of Philip B. Winston, Esq., a native of Virginia, and a respected 
and Infiuential citizen of Minneapolis; Sarah is at present residing with her 
parents ; Orma, the fourth daughter, Is a graduate of the city high school ; the 



474 



THF, UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



youngest, Frances Hflcn, is a student in tlic Minneapolis Female Seminary, and 
Gardner, the only son, is a civil engineer. 

The talents and energies of the Colonel have never been devoted to the 
attainment of personal or selfish ends, but rather to the enriching and advancing 
of the whole, hence he may not be called wealthy in worldly goods, but in the 
respect and esteem of friends, neighbors and fellow-citizens, and of all who know 
his true worth, he is rich indeed. His character is open, warm-hearted and gen- 
erous almost to a fault ; in him the poor and needy have ever found a sympathiz- 
ing friend, and the distressed never left his presence with a sorrowing heart or a 
tearful eye, il in his power to aid them. 

Th(^ following brief extract from a speech delivered at a meeting of the Old 
Settlers' Association, and addressed to Colonel .Stevens, will serve as an excel- 
lent illustration of the feeling of friends toward him : 

We have long been accustomed to look upon you, sir, and your loved and honored wife, though 
'still in the prime of life, as the parents of Hennepin county. We remember when your modest home 
on the farther bank of yonder stream was the only dwelling outside the limits of the fort, west of the 
Mississijipi, in what is now Hennepin county. Scarce any of us but have partaken of your generous 
hosintality, and the stranger never went hungry or naked from your door. Nay more ! to your friend- 
ly advice, unselfish efforts and good offices at an early day, many of us may be said to owe the very 
liomes which we enjoy; and so it has occurred that you have established a claim upon our gratitude 
and affection such as none others can ever have, and if the earnest wishes and prayers of loving, grate- 
ful hearts could shield you and yours from harm, the shadow of sorrow would never darken your 
])athway. 



JAMES D. FARMER, 

SP1UX(, VAl.LEV. 

JAMES DUANE FARMER, whose parentage may be found in a sketch of 
his elder brother, Hon. |. O. I'^irmer, on another page, dates his birth at Madi- 
son, Lake coimty, Ohio, on the 3d of July, 1839. He was reared on his father's 
farm; received an academic education at the Orand River Institute, a manual- 
labor school, at Austinburgh, Ashtabula coiuit)^ ; taught two winters ; read law 
with his brother, [ohn Ouinc)', anil being in poor health came to Minnesota in 
1857. Two years later he was admitted to the bar at Austin, and has l)een in 
practice at .Spring Vall(\- for nearly twenty years. Since 1864 he has been in 
conipauN' with his brotln'r, the linn being J. Q. and [. I). Farmer, a firm ot great 
promptiK.'ss ami reliabilit}'. lames i ). makes a specialty ot criminal law, has 
much business in that line, and is noted as a criminal advocate. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 475 

In 1S62 he went into the miUtary service on the frontier, as a Heutenant in 
the 1st Minnesota Mounted Rangers, and served during that season's campaign, 
part of the time as post-quartermaster at Glencoe. 

Mr. Farmer has been county attorney for three terms (six years), and in 
November, 1878, was reelected, and has entered on his fourth term. He is a 
sound lawyer, and a strictly upright and honorable man. His politics have always 
been republican, and he is a conscientious hard worker, — a man of much influ- 
ence in the county. He has the respect of all parties. 

Mr. Farmer is master of Spring Valley Lodge, No. 58, of Freemasons, and 
junior deacon in the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge. He is also deputy grand 
worthy chief of the order of Temple of Honor, and an earnest worker in the tem- 
perance cause, having organized all the temples in this part of the state, and being- 
well known in every part of it. He is emphatically a well-wisher to societ)', and 
freely gives time and his best energies to promote its welfare. 

On the 1 6th of November, i860, Miss Josephine M. Howard, of Conneaut, 
Ohio, was married at La Crescent, Minnesota, to Mr. Farmer, and they have one 
son, — H. Howard, aged seventeen years. 

When Mr. Farmer came to Minnesota he had a bad cough, and was very 
much emaciated, weighing hardly one hundred and twenty pounds. He now 
weighs two hundred and torty-tive pounds, — thus paying a very high compliment 
to the climate of Minnesota. He is five feet and eight and a half inches tall, and 
stands as firmly as the lord oi the richest demesne in the old world. 



EDWIN C. CROSS, M.D., 

ROCHESTER. 

FEW physicians in southern Minnesota have been longer in the practice than 
Edwin Childs Cross, who received an unusually thorough medical education. 
He is a son of Peter and Dorcas Wild Cross, and was born at Bradford, Vermont, 
on the i6th of April, 1824. His branch of the Cross family were early settlers 
in New Hampshire. Peter Cross was a pump-borer, at which business the son 
aided his father until twelve years old, soon after which age he commenced at- 
tending school at Bradford Academy. From thirteen to twenty-two years of age 
he gave his entire time to literary and medical studies, supporting himself by 



476 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

various kintls of work, lie tinished his ctlucalion at Hanover, New Hampshire, 
taking a partial classical course in 1 )artnioulh College, where he received his med- 
ical education and took his first course of lectures. Subsecpicntly he attended 
lectures at Castleton and Woodstock, Vermont, and the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, Philadelphia, and graduated from the Norwich University, \'er- 
mont, in 1846. 

Ur. Cross practiced four years in Leyden, Massachusetts, three years at Guil- 
ford, X^crmont, between four and five years at Hrattleboro, Vermont, and removed 
to Rochester, his present home, in May, 185S. Here he has had an extensive 
practice for twenty years; has an excellent reputation both in medicine and sur- 
gery; has lived a very active life, antl was never more busy than at the present 
time. Vo\- many years he has taken charge of the difficult surgical cases for 
many miles around, and seems to try in vain to curtail his professional rides. He 
is a wc:ll-preserved man now, in his fifty-fitth year, — as agile, seemingly, as at 
thirty-five. 

Dr. Cross was surgeon of the provost board of the first congressional district 
during the civil war, at the close of which he was honorably discharged. For the 
last fifteen years he has been pension surgeon in his district. Like other distin- 
guished surgeons, he has defended several well-contested suits for malpractice in 
surgery, and in all cases the prosecutors were deleated. 

Dr. Cross has held very f(;w civil offices, having attended closely to his profes- 
sion antl his medical studies, lie ha\'ing a large and well-selected library. He has 
also paid considerable attention to finance, a science in which he is an adept. 

The Doctor was reared in the democratic school ot politics, but cast his first 
vote for a whig, and since 1855 has affiliated with the republicans. 

He has received many of the higher degrees in Masonry, and in some of the 
orders has occupied chairs in the grand east. 

The wife of Dr. Cross was Miss Fanny E. Marc)', youngest sister ot 01i\er 
Marcy, LL.l)., acting president of the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Illi- 
nois; their marriage occurring on the 1st of October, 1859. They have had si.x 
children, losing three sons and haxing two daughters and one son living: Anna 
Dorcas, aged eighteen, is a student in the Northwestern University; Myra, aged 
fifteen, is a student in Saint Mary's Hall, h'aribault, Minnesota, and John Gros- 
venor, an urchin ol eight y(;ars, takes command ot the premises in his father's 
absence. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 477 

Dr. Cross has long been a member of the Minnesota State Medical Society 
and of the American Medical Association, and has a good standing among the 
fraternity outside as well as inside the state. He has never practiced exclusively 
any one system, but is independent, prescribing as his judgment deems best. 



CAPTAIN JOSIAH E. WEST, 

SAINT CLOUD. 

JOSIAH ELAM WEST, son of Caleb and Elizabeth (Elam> West, was born 
J in Greene county, Ohio, on the 13th of December, 1832. His father, a cabinet- 
maker by trade, was from Connecticut. When Josiah was about six years old 
his parents moved to Piqua, Miami county, Ohio, where they both died when he 
was twelve years of age. On meeting with this great loss he returned to Greene 
county, lived with an uncle a short time, and then went into a woolen factory at 
Spring Valley, same county, spending two years in learning to manufacture cloth. 
At fifteen he became a clerk in a store at Logansport, Indiana, laboring in that 
capacity there until nineteen, with only a common-school education, and in 1851 
he went to Bloomington, Illinois, continuing the business of a salesman for two 
years. 

In 1S53 Mr. West came to Saint Anthony, in this state, ran a bakery and 
restaurant there one season, and in the autumn of 1854 settled at Saint Cloud, 
then a village in an embryotic state, with not more than twenty families. He 
worked in a saw-mill the first winter; the next spring started a store in company 
with Mr. Horine, and sold goods until the autumn of 1857, the last \ear in com- 
pany with J. N. Mason. 

About this time Mr. West took up a claim six miles from Saint Cloud, culti- 
vated it one season ; made up his mind that farming was not his specialty ; dis- 
posed of his land; commenced the manufacture of brick and lime; followed that 
business two years; commenced building in 1861, and continued it until August, 
1862, when he enlisted as a private in Company I, 7th Minnesota Infantry. He 
served three full years, and was promoted step by step till he had command of 
the company. He was in many battles, and never received a wound. 

In the autumn of 1865 Captain West resumed the mercantile business, adding 
insurance, discontinuing the former branch in 1874 and still continuing the latter. 



47''^ THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL B/CTIOiVARY. 

He was appointed postmaster by President Grant in 1S69; was reappointed in 
1873 and 1S77, and is now serving his third term. 

In politics, he has alwaj's been a republican, and has much influence in the 
party. He makes a popular government official. He is a third-degree Mason ; 
in religious sentiment, a Baptist, but a member of no church. 

Captain West has been identified with all local improvements of importance, 
and in a double sense has been efficient in building u[) this city. At sundry times 
he put up at least half-a-dozen dwelling-houses and three or lour stores, including 
the postoffice .block. In 1875 he built the " West House," a cream-colored three 
story brick structure, which is an ornament to the city. His public spirit and 
enterprise have done their full share in adding to the beauty and thrift of Saint 
Cloud. 



JAMES P. SQUIRES, M.D., 

AUST/N. 

JAMES PHINEAS SQUIRES, a physician and surgeon of twenty-eight 
years' experience in the profession, was born in South Dansville, New York, 
on the 22d of August, 1825. His parents, I'hineas and Jane (Buchanan) Squires, 
belonoed to the farming communitw His maternal great-grandfather was a short 
time in the iM-ench and Indian war (1755-60), and all through the revolutionary 
struogle. James received his literary education at the academy in Dansville, and 
farmed more or less until of age, teaching one winter. He read medicine at first 
with Dr. Ackley, of South Dansville, and then with Dr. Hovey, of Dansville; 
attended lectures at the Buffalo Medical College; graduated in 1850; practiced 
two or three years at Greenwood, Steuben county, and in 1S53 settled in Marke- 
san. Green Lake county, Wisconsin. Ten )ears later he removed to Waterloo, 
Jefferson county, same state; early in the spring of 1865 became assistant sur- 
geon 48th Wisconsin Infantry, which regiment was about starting for the south- 
west when Lee surrendered. It went as far as Fort Scott, Kansas, and was 
then divided, doing frontier duty at different points. 

In the spring of 1866 Dr. Squires returned to Markesan, and practiced there 
and in Columbia county until the spring Of 1870, when he left Wisconsin and 
came to Blue Earth, Faribault county, Minnesota. Two years later he settled 
in Austin, where he has a large practice and an e.xct'Uent standing. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 479 

The Doctor has had very little to do with poHtics or office-holding; has run 
off into none of the isms in theolog)' or social or physical science ; has made 
medicine his sole and close study, and hence his reputation and success in the 
healing art. He has good social qualities, and avoids adding gloom to a sick 
room. He is a Royal Arch Mason. 

Dr. Squires has a second wife, the first being Miss Mary Gertrude Albright, 
of Dansville, New York; married on the 28th of February, 1851. She had four 
children, and died in 1867 ; only one of her children, Charles P., a student, is now 
living. His present wife was Miss Emily Frances VVeller, a native of Livingston 
count)', New York, and living at Rochester, Minnesota, when married, on the 27th 
of November, 1868. She has two children, Helen Edith, aged nine, and Alice 
May, aged five years. 



JUDGE JOHN P. REA, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

JOHN PATTERSON REA was born in Lower Oxford township, Chester 
county, Pennsylvania, on the 13th of October, 1840. His father was a woolen 
manufacturer. He passed the greater part of his time until nineteen years of 
age at work in his father's factory. In September, i860, he left home, and was 
engaged from that time until April, 1861, teaching school in Miami county, Ohio. 

On the i6th of April, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the iith Ohio Volun- 
teers, and served until August of that year, when he was commissioned a second 
lieutenant in the ist regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. He served in the latter 
regiment without interruption until mustered out, on the 23d of November, 
1864. Was promoted to first lieutenant, March, 1862 ; to captain, March, 1863, 
and breveted major, for gallantry in action, November, 1863. Participated in all 
the campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland, and in Sherman's Atlanta cam- 
paign ; took part in over fifty engagements ; during three years and four months' 
service in the ist Ohio Cavalry, was absent from his command altoeether but ten 
days, seven of which he was a priscMier. 

He entered the sophomore class of the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, 
Ohio, January, 1865, graduating from that institution in class of 1S67. Durino- 
the summer vacation of 1866 he was enrolled as a student of law in the office of 



480 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Hon. O. J. Dickey, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Resuming his studies with Mr. 
Dickey in the summer of 1867, he was admitted to the bar in August, 1868. 

In November, 1868, he was commissioned by Governor Geary one of the 
three notaries pubhc of Lancaster. Pennsylvania. In April, 1869, he was ap- 
pointed, by President Grant. United States internal revenue assessor for the 
ninth Pennsylvania district, — a position he held until the 20th of May, 1873, 
when the ofhce of assessor was abolished. 

P^-om 1S66 to 1875 Mr. Rea was actively engaged on the rcpul)lican side in 
Pennsylvania politics. He stumped the state for the ticket of his i)arty during 
each of those ten successive years. 

In November, 1875, he visited Minneapolis, ami, impressed with its beauty 
and promise, determined to make it his future liome. He bought an interest in 
the Minneapolis "Tribune," and took editorial charge of it in January, 1876. 
After the consolidation of the " Morning Tribune" with the " Pioneer Press," in 
the following May, he remained on the editorial staff of the paper until May, 
1877, when he resumed the practice of his profession, forming a partnership with 
F. Hooker, Esq. 

In NovembcM", 1877, Mr. Rea was elected judge of probate of Hennepin coun- 
ty by a majority of fifteen hundred over the opposing candidate. That position 
he now holds. He is a member of the law firm of Rea, Hooker and Woolley. 



GENERAL CHARLES P. ADAMS, M.D., 

HASTINGS. 

CHARLES POWELL ADAMS, the first practicing physician to settle in 
Hastings, dates his birth at Rainsburgh, Bedford county, Penns)lvaiiia, on 
the 3d of March, 1831. His father, William Adams, a farmer and mill-owner, is 
residing at Southampton, Bedford county, now in his seventy-seventh year. This 
branch of the Adams family came to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1645, and moved 
thence to Fairfax county, same state. Jacob Adams, grandfather of our subject, 
served five years under General Washington, coming out of the arm)- in 1783 as 
captain, and dying at the age of ninety-eight years. The wife of William Adams 
was Nancy Powell, whose father, George Powell, came from Scotland and settled 
in Loudon county, Virginia. 





fflAy-u^ y/'O'c^ 



^^2^^/i-^ 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 483 

At fifteen years of age Charles went to Ohio and attended the West Bedford 
Academy for three years, there finishing his literary education. He there read 
medicine with Dr. William R. Waddell one year; then with Drs. Crumley and 
Pierce, of Amity, Ohio ; attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College, Cincin- 
nati; received his diploma in 1S51; practiced a short time at Amity, Knox county; 
then at Waymansville, Bartholomew county, Indiana, until the ist of October, 
1854, on which date he started for Hastings, reaching here on the 9th of the next 
month. There were then but four buildings in the place, and not a dwelling 
house, except where the horses were changed on the old stage route from the 
Iowa line to Hastinos. 

o 

Dr. Adams here practiced steadily until the spring of 1861. On the 22d of 
April of that year he enlisted as a private in the ist Minnesota Infantry; was 
elected captain of company H ; was made major on the battle-field of Antietam; 
lieutenant-colonel after the first battle of Fredericksburgh; was breveted colonel by 
the war department at the second battle of Fredericksburgh, and brevet brigadier- 
general after the battle of Gettysburgh, and confirmed by the United States 
senate on the 2 2d of March, 1865. 

General Adams commanded the regiment from the 12th of December, 1863, 
until mustered out at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, on the 6th of May, 1864, and was 
in every battle from Bull Run to Gettysburgh. He was slightly wounded in the 
arm at Bull Run, on the 21st of July, 1861; severely in the left groin at Malvern 
Hills, on the ist of July, 1862; severely at Antietam, on the 17th of the following- 
September, and at Gettysburgh, on the 2d of July, 1863, in five places — through the 
left chest and lung, in the left groin, breaking femur, in the left thigh, above the 
lower third, and in the right side of the abdomen. He was left for dead, and lay 
five days on the field. He was finally found and cared for, and had to use a 
crutch eighteen months. He still carries two balls and one buckshot. 

On being mustered out of the first three years' service, at which time he had 
partially recovered from his wounds. General Adams was recommissioned, on the 
i6th of June, 1864, as major of the Independent Battalion Minnesota Cavalry, 
which was stationed at Fort Abercrombie, Dakota Territory. In September of 
the same year he was made lieutenant-colonel and placed in command of the 
battalion, and was also appointed commander of the third subdistrict of the dis- 
trict of Minnesota. 

On the 9th of January, 1866, he started on his first expedition against the 



484 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Sioux, in a deep snow, and the second expedition was undertaken on the 22d of 
the following month, during which expeditions one hundred and seventy-eight 
hostile Indians were captured. 

During that winter the soldiers suffered at times fearfully from cold, the ther- 
mometer often standing at thirty and forty and sometimes fifty degrees below 
zero. On the two expeditions his command was out forty-three days and nights, 
and were the first of the kind, establishing by their success the feasibility of such 
expeditions. 

Few men in Minnesota have a more brilliant military record than General 
Adams. In his report of the battles of Gettysburgh, Major-General Hancock 
speaks in strong terms of praise of the gallantry of this officer. 

The battalion was mustered out on the i6th of June, 1866, and since that 
time the Doctor has been engaged in his profession. He has a farm six miles 
from the city of Hastings, which he superintends, but is seen in town every day 
busy among his patients. 

Dr. Adams was a member of the territorial legislature in the regular and 
extra sessions of 1856 and 1857, and was chairman of the committee on incor- 
porations. He was mayor of the city in 1872. 

The Doctor has always affiliated with the democrac)- ; was publishing the 
Hastings " Democrat" when the civil war commenced, and, on enlisting, closed his 
office with the announcement that it would not be reopened until the rebels had 
laid down their arms. 

He was the only member of the Union army in his father's family, and had 
seven cousins who were officers on the confederate side. 

The Doctor has been king of the masonic chapter at Hastings, and is a Knight 
Templar, belonging to Damascus Commandery. No. i. Saint Paul. 

He was first married in February, 1852, to Miss Mary Florence, daughter of 
Rev. Alvin Buxton, of Waymansville. She had three children, and died in 1858. 
Two of her children. Flora J. and William H., are still living, — the daughter is a 
teacher in the Hastings high school, and the son is just finishing his education 
in the law department of the Michigan State University. His present wife was 
Mrs. Mary S. Pettibone, of Vermilion, Dakota county, Minnesota; married on the 
30th of November, 1873. She has had two children and lost them. 

Dr. Adams is a member of the Dakota County Medical Society, and of the 
Minnesota State Medical Society; has been its vice-president, and was for eight 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 485 

years chairman of the executive committee. He is also a member of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association, and has been a delegate several times to its annual 
meetings. He is also a member of the Rocky Mountain Medical Association, and 
an honorary member of the California State Medical Society. 



HON. BENJAMIN D. SPRAGUE, 

RUSHFORD. 

BENJAMIN DEXTER SPRAGUE, one of the enterprising millers of Fill- 
more county, and tor four sessions a member of the Minnesota legislature, 
dates his birth at Bedford, Merrimac county, New Hampshire, on the 6th of 
December, 1827. His father, Lowell Sprague, was a farmer and speculator, and 
a son of Benjamin Sprague, one of the volunteers who fought for the liberty of 
the American colonies. The .Spragues moved into New Hampshire from the old 
Bay State. When Benjamin was three years old the family moved to western 
New York, and settled at East Newark, Wayne county, where he attended school 
three or four months in a year till nearly of age, farming usually the rest of the 
year. He subsequently worked three or four years at pattern-making in a ma- 
chine-shop at Newark; took a trip to California in 1851, and a second one in 
1853, mining most of the time with excellent success, returning to East Newark 
in 1855. There he was engaged in the hardware trade for three years, then read 
law for eighteen months, and in December, 1859, settled in Mower county, Min- 
nesota, farming for several years. While in that county he represented it one 
year in the house of representatives and two years in the state senate. About 
that time a railroad was projected by him and others, and while in the legislature 
he aided in getting the charter for the Southern Minnesota railroad, now com- 
pleted to Jackson, the seventh county in the southern tier from the Mississippi 
river. He was one of the parties who, .in 1864, organized the company for the 
building of this road, and was appointed the land commissioner of the company. 
He had his office at first at Hokah, near the eastern end of the road; as the road 
progressed, removed it to Houston, and finally to Rushford, resigning the office 
in 1867, soon after the road reached this point, and here made his home. 

Rushford is located on the Root river, which here forms a first-class water- 
power, which Mr. Sprague and others Improved, he launching out into the milling 



486 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

business with as little delay as possible, and is now manufacturing about fifty 
thousand barrels of superb merchant flour yearly. lie is one of the most reliable 
business-men in this part of Fillmore county, energetic, public-spirited, and much 
respected. Since settling in this county he was in the state senate one session, 
filling a vacancy, and is now mayor of the city. 

Mr. Sprague began political life as a democrat, voting for Franklin Pierce in 
1852. Being of the "barn-burner" or free-soil branch of that political family, he 
naturally dropped out of its ranks before the end of Mr. Pierce's administration 
and became a thorough-going republican, the name by which he is still known. 

Mr. Sprague joined the Baptist church many years ago, but there is no organi- 
zation of that name in Rushford. He is a member of the Temple of Honor, 
an efficient worker in the temperance cause, and does much to elevate the tone 
of society in Rushford. 

On the 28th of April, 1858, Miss Lucy Ann McCall, of Rushford, Allegany 
county, New York, was married to Mr. Sprague, and they have lost two children 
and have five living, — Katie I., Gertrude, Loui D., Milton M. and Bessie. May 
L., the first-born, died when three years old, and Will M. when less than two. 



WILLIAM SCHIMMEL, 

SAINT PETER. 

WILLIAM SCHIMMEL, merchant in Saint Peter since 1856, and presi- 
dent of the First National Bank since it was organized, is a native of 
Westphalia, Prussia, where he was born, on the 19th of May, 1S22. His father, 
Frederic Schimmel, was a cloth manufacturer. His mother's maiden name was 
Elizabeth Danzberg. William was educated at the higher schools, next below 
the university ; at fourteen commenced learning the printer's trade ; worked at 
it as an apprentice and journe)'man in the old country until 1850, when he came 
to the United States, and located at first in Detroit, Michigan. There he worked 
three years as a journeyman printer; in 1S53 established the Michigan " Volks- 
blatt"; conducted it three years, and in 1856 removed to .Saint Peter, here estab- 
lishing himself in the business already mentioned, and making a success of it. 
To merchandise he added, many years ago, general produce, and his business 
transactions, as a whole, have been attended with good luck. In 1871, when the 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 487 

First National Bank of Saint Peter was ready to open, he was selected as its 
president, he being one of its heavier stockholders. In social standing-, as in 
finances, he is classed among the solid men of Nicollet county. 

Mr. Schimmel has been mayor of Saint Peter two terms, making an efficient 
executive, and for eight years was a director and the treasurer of the school board. 
He was treasurer when the substantial brick school-house was built, nine or ten 
years ago, and was a leading- man in putting through that noble enterprise. He 
is full of public spirit, and takes great pride in working for the interests of his 
adopted home. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Asylum for the 
Insane, located at Saint Peter, and a warm friend of the unfortunate. 

Mr. Schimmel has been a republican since the incipiency of the party ; often 
attends state and other conventions, and has a powerful influence in political cir- 
cles. He is a member of the fraternity of Odd-Fellows. 

The wife of Mr. Schimmel was Miss Lina Lottmann, a native of Westphalia, 
Prussia, their union taking place in September, 1853. They have lost three chil- 
dren and have two living: Anna, aged thirteen, and Rudolph, aged eleven years. 



COLONEL GEORGE H. JOHNSTON, 

DETROIT. 

GEORGE HENRY JOHNSTON, the founder of the town of Detroit, is 
a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and was born on the 5th of May, 1834, 
his parents being William and Susanna Caines Johnston. His grandfather, George 
Johnston, came from Scotland about 1810, and settled in Boston. His maternal 
grandfather, Thomas Caines, came from England, and introduced the manufac- 
ture ot flint glass in this country, starting the enterprise in south Boston, when 
that part of the city was largely devoted to cow pastures. 

'I he subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of Boston ; 
in 1850 commenced to learn of his father the trade of a glass manufacturer; 
worked at the business till of age ; clerked a few years in the Boston post-office ; 
in 1855 started the Suffolk Glass Works, and in 1861 sold out to his father-in- 
law, Joshua Jenkins, who still carries on the business, — the only works of the 
kind now in operation in that city. 

In May, 1861, Mr. Johnston entered the army as first lieutenant of company 



488 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

E, ist Massachusetts Infantry; was promoted to adjutant after the first battle of 
Bull Rvui ; in 1862, by appointment of the President, was promoted to captain 
and adjutant-general, and a little later was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and 
adjutant-general, " for gallantry at Williamsburgh, Fair Oaks, Glen Dale and Mal- 
vern Hill." 

He was in thirty-two engagements, and received only two very slight wounds ; 
was honorably mentioned four times by the commanding.officer for bravery and 
skillful manoeuveringon different occasions, and was breveted colonel at the close 
of the war. He resiened a short time before Lee's surrender, on a surgeon's cer- 
tificate of disability. 

After recovering, Colonel Johnston was in trade a short time at Norfolk, \'ir- 
oinia; then returned to Boston, and em/aged in the building and real-estate busi- 
ness ; in 1871 came to Minnesota to select lands for the New England colony, 
and after extensive observations, selected twenty thousand acres in Becker coun- 
t\-, buying all the odd sections in one of the finest tracts of country in the state, 
right in the heart of what is known as the " Park Region." 

The company for which he acted represented a capital of one hundred thou- 
sand dollars. About three years ago he bought out its interest, and still has 
about five thousand acres to dispose of. He is still connected with the emigrant 
agency business, there being a bureau in Boston, and especial favors in transpor- 
tation, etc., are shown to parties coming here to settle. 

Detroit is delightfully located on a high point of land, with very pleasant sur- 
roundings. Detroit lake, three miles long and two miles wide, is a charming 
sheet of clear, cool water, abounding in fish of various kinds, and there are five 
other lakes in the township, averaging a mile square. This is the shire town of 
the county; has a land office, and is a central point for the Indian agencies and 
mail distribution. 

The village of Detroit has nearly one thousand inhabitants, and is growing 
rapidly. The fertile country around it, and its healthful climate, will be likely to 
make it become a large city when the country bi-comes thickly settled. People 
come here from the south to spend their summers. The mineral springs here, 
known to the Indians from time immemorial, are still visited by them, as well as 
by white people. 

In 1874 Colonel Johnston built a flouring mill on Pelican river, one mile from 
town, and is still running it. He was in mercantile business about one year 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 489 

here, selling out in the autumn of 1877. His mill and his landed interests absorb 
his whole time. 

When in Boston, Colonel Johnston was in the city council several years, but 
in Minnesota has kept out of political ofifice. For two years he was department 
commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, resigning in 1877. 

He is a Baptist, and trustee of the Detroit society. 

His wife was Miss Amanda M. Jenkins, daughter of Joshua Jenkins, already 
mentioned. They were married in February, 1859, and have five children. 

As one of the town-builders of Minnesota, Colonel Johnston deserves great 
credit for his public spirit and enterprise. His name is indelibly and honorably 
inwoven with the early history of Becker county. 



HON. EDSON R. SMITH, 

IE SUEUR. 

EDSON ROLLIN SMITH was born in Shoreham, Vermont, on the 8th 
of April, 1836. He worked on his father's farm until seventeen years of 
age, and then in a store at Shoreham between two and three years, finishing his 
education at Newton Academy, in his native town, where he studied in all about 
two years, attending to English branches, having especial reference to business. 

In 1856 he left his native state; came directly to Le Sueur; formed a part- 
nership with his brother Henry; remained in trade with him until 1859, when he 
went into the county auditor's office, serving one year as deputy and two years 
as auditor of the county. In 1863 he resumed the mercantile business in com- 
pany with his brother, continuing in that relation until the ist of August, 1878, 
when he became a partner of Hon. Michael Doran in the banking business in Le 
Sueur, — an institution established by other parties in 1869. Messrs. Doran and 
Smith own the Le Sueur steam flouring mill and the elevator, and are men who 
push business. The village owes, in a large measure, its growth and thrift to a 
few such men as the members of this banking house. 

Mr. Smith was a state senator in 1868 and 1870, and was chairman of the 
committee on state prison one year, and of the committee on enrollment the 
other year, being also on the committee on towns and counties both sessions. 
He has been in the town council for the last five years; was a member of the 



490 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

local school board seven years, and its treasurer most of the time ; and is a 
trustee, and secretary and treasurer of the Le Sueur Mound and Cemetery Asso- 
ciation. He is a sharp business man. 

His political associations are with the republicans, and few men in Le Sueur 
county have a better standing with the part)-. He is a Knight Templar, and has 
been master of the Le .Sueur Lodge three years, and its treasurer eight or nine 
years. His religious connection is with the Presbyterian church, of which he is 
an elder. His moral character is uncjuestioned. 

On the T,i\ of November, 1859, Miss Mattie A. Pierson, a native of New 
Hampshire, and residing at the time in Le Sueur county, became the wife of 
Mr. Smith, and they have three boys, — Lewis Orville, Rollin Edson and Fred 
Pierson. 



LIEUTENANT AXEL H. REED, 

GLENCOE. 

AXEL HAY FORD REED, son of .Sampson Reed, farmer and drover, and 
1- Huldah Bisbee, was born in the town of Hartford, Oxford county, Maine, 
on the 13th of March, iiS35. His grandfather was from Groton, Massachusetts. 
His motlier descended from Charles Bisbee, of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 
and his maternal great-grandfather, Elisha Bisbee, senior, was lieutenant of a 
corps of blacksmiths in the revolutionary army. 

A.xel spent his youth in farming and driving cattle for his father, attending a 
district school in the winters, and one term at a normal school at South Paris. 
Maine. At nineteen years of age he went to Rochester, New York, and worked 
two seasons for the Rochester Brick and Tile Conipany, attending school one 
winter at Shelby Basin ; pushed westward in September, 1855 ; spent that autumn 
in the employ of Joel S. Sherman, proprietor of the Northwestern Nurseries, 
Rockford, Illinois ; came to Minnesota just as winter was setting in, and in the 
spring of 1856 located at Glencoe, taking up a preemption claim near town. He 
here engaged in brick-making that summer, in which enterprise he lost all he had 
worked hard for. During the next three seasons he was foreman In the brick- 
making business at Carver and Belle Plaine, in adjoining counties. 

During the winters of 1859-60 and 1860-61 Mr. Reed was engaged with C. 
Preble, John McEadden, Stephen D. Damon and H.Wilson, well-known tra])pers 




v&c 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY 



493 



in those early days, in trapping round Yandiyohi lake and the Chippewa river. 
While hunting and trapping in the wilderness of Minnesota he experienced near- 
ly every phase of hardship. The Indians stole their traps and furs, and at one 
time broke into their camp and carried off all their pork, flour and furs. This 
robbery was committed by a portion of Little Crow's band, who, in 1S62, partici- 
pated in the massacre of the whites. Mr. Reed and two of his party followed 
them by tracks in the snow, and found them, but the Indians denied the theft 
ami refused to give up anything, but some of the traps were found and taken 
from them. Some of these Indians were afterward hung at Mankato for the part 
they had taken in the Sioux war. 

While camped on the Chippewa river in i<S6o-6i, near where Benson is now 
located, he and his party came near starving to death, by the failure of a man 
who had purchased their furs and had agreed to deliver them provisions by a 
certain time. To preserve life the whole party was forced to eat muskrats, foxes 
and minks — even those that had been killed for months. 

Upon returning to civilization, in May, 1861, he learned that the civil war was 
in progress. He was among the first from Glencoe to offer his services to his 
country, and was mustered into company K, 2d Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, 
on the 5th of August, 1861. His regiment was sent early to the field, and took 
part in all of the campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland, in the brigade of the 
noted "fighting Bob McCook," and at different times under the command of 
Generals Sherman, Buell, Rosecrans, and that noble old Roman, General George 
H. Thomas. Mr. Reed passed through all the grades of promotion up to first 
lieutenant, and participated in every march, skirmish and battle his company or 
regiment was engaged in, until he lost his right arm at Missionary Ridge, Ten- 
nessee, on the 25th of November, 1863, when only orderly sergeant. He was 
cpmmanding his company, by order of Colonel J. W. Bishop (commanding regi- 
ment), at that time color-company in the front line, on the extreme left of General 
Thomas' army, and was among the first of his regiment to gain the last line of rebel 
works at the top of the ridge, where he fell wounded, after the rebels were in full 
retreat. F"rom the effects of this wound his right arm was amputated the same 
night. He refused to be discharged, and rejoined his company at Ringgold, Georgia, 
in time to enter on Sherman's notable campaign through to Atlanta and the sea. 
At Kenesaw Mountain, Reed was promoted to sergeant-major of the 2d Minne- 
sota regiment, in which position he served out his term of enlistment (three 
.s6 



494 ^^^^ UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

years), when he was commissioned secoml Heutenant of his old company ( K ) 
and was presented by his old comrades with a sword and belt. He served through 
the campaign to the sea and northward with Sherman ; was promoted to first 
lieutenant in South Carolina, in which position he served to the end of the war, 
being mustered out with his regiment at Fort Snelling, on the i8th of July, 1865. 
Lieutenant Reed participated in the following campaigns and battles : Mill 
Spring, Pittsburgh Landing, Perryvillc and P)ueirs campaign after Bragg, Ho- 
ver's Gap, Tiillahoma, Chickamauga, Missionary Ritlge, Kcnesaw Mountain, 
Atlanta campaign after Hood's army, and through the Carolinas, etc. After the 
surrender of Lee's army he asked for and received his hrst furlough, and visited 
friends in Maine, Massachusetts and Minnesota, and returned to his regiment 
in Washington in June, 1865, and was soon after transported to Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, where he was detailed to command a company in the 23d Missouri regi- 
ment, which position he held until the 2d Minnesota was ordered home. He was 
mentioned in general orders in the report of his commanding officers for his 
bravery in the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. We give a few of 
the inan\- notable events of his army life which tend to mark his character. 

After receiving his wouml at Missionary Ridge he tore the strap from his 
haversack, and, with the assistance of a wounded comrade, tied up his wound to 
stop the How of blood, and made his way without further assistance into Chatta- 
nooga, about two miles distant, summoned Dr. Ayer, surgeon of the 2d Minne- 
sota, and asked him to attend to his arm. After his arm had been cut off and 
laid on the talole, he remarked to those around him, " 1 had rather have that, 
that way, than to have been whijjped by the rebels up there." 

1 liree days after the loss ot his right arm he got his nurse to [n'op him up on 
his bunk, ;uid with a cracker-box cover for a table, he wrote the following letter: 

Chattanooga, Tknnessee, November 2S, 1S63. 
Dear Brothf.rs and Sisters: I have been through ilie figlit and came out safe and sound, 
with the exception of the slight loss of a riglit arm. (live yourselves no uneasiness about me, for I 
have good care and am getting along first-rate. Truly your brother, \. H. Reed. 

His indomitable will assisted him to speedily recover, while nearly every other 
case of the kind in that hospital caused death. 

Near Lebanon, Kentucky, in the fall of 1S61, he had an encounter with the 
noted Dr. Jackson, a wealthy and bitter rebel, brother of the Jackson who killed 
Colonel Ellsworth at Alexandria. Sergeant Reed, with a small stpiad, went to 
Jackson's plantation after some forage for their teams. Dr. Jackson cursed tiiem. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 495 

called them " Lincoln's hirelings," and said, " if it is forage you want I'll give it to 
you," and commenced firing on the party. Charly All, of company I, stood by 
Sergeant Reed, and they returned the fire. At the second shot from Jackson, All 
was severely wounded. When Jackson stepped out on the verandah with another 
gun, Reed fired, and the ball passed so near Jackson's head that he retreated into 
the house. Sergeant Reed helped his wounded comrade away, but returned imme- 
diately with several more soldiers under his command, surrounded the house, and 
kept Jackson from fieeing until he was taken prisoner. Jackson escaped punish- 
ment, entered the rebel service, and was killed by his own son. 

After the TuUahoma campaign in Tennessee, our soldiers were put on half 
rations, while rebel citizens and deserters were fed from our commissary, as a 
pacifying measure. Reed, being orderly sergeant, opposed such action, as he 
always defended the rights of the enlisted men instead of officers. The com- 
plaints of his hungry comrades of scanty rations became so numerous that he 
wrote a short letter to the Nashville " Union," detailing what they had gone 
through and the manner in which their rations were dealt out to rebels, and 
wound up by saying : " By knowing whether this was done by the order of Gen- 
eral Brannon, General Thomas or General Rosecrans, would oblige many soldiers." 
A few days after an order came from General J. M. Brannon to Colonel James 
George, commanding 2d Minnesota, to place Sergeant Reed in close confinement. 

The officers of the 2d Minnesota almost unanimously signed a petition for his 
release, stating that it was through inadvertency that he had written what he did ; 
but Reed objected to admitting that, saying he could prove all he had said or 
written, and would do it if they would give him a fair trial. He was kept under 
arrest fifty-two days, and until the battle of Chickamauga commenced, when he 
broke from his arrest, took the gun of the first man that was wounded in his reg- 
iment, and did such service throughout that two days' terrible battle that an order 
was issued for his release. He refused at first to accept his release, saying that 
if he had done any injury to the service he wanted to know it, and was willing to 
be punished for it ; but after consulting Captain Scott, Major John B. Davis and 
other officers of his regiment, who assured him that no disgrace attached to his 
arrest, and that the whole command sympathized with him, he concluded to 
accept, and immediately resumed the duties of orderly sergeant. 

The month after being mustered out of the service Lieutenant Reed engaged 
in the mercantile business at Glencoe, in company with Captain Matthias Thoeny, 



496 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

they continuing in partnership aljoiit tour years, alter which Mr. Reed purchased 
the whole interest. in- 1872 loseph Richardson, lormerly of Rochester, New 
York, became his loarlni-r, and no tirni in this part of the country is better 
or more favorably known than that of A. W. Reed and Co. They have the 
largest store in the county, it being fifty-four by sixty feet, with a large store- 
room in the rear; keep a heavy stock of general merchandise, and theirs is not 
only the oldest, but the leading mercantile house in McLeod count)-. The firm 
of A. H. Reed and Co. also has a steam elevator and feed mill, and is doing an 
extensive business in bLi\ing and shi])ping grain and other produce. 

The subject of this sketch was deputy collector of internal revenue in 1867 
and 1868, sergeant-at-arms of the Minnesota house of representatives during the 
sessions of 1868 and 1869, and member of that body in 1870. 

In politics, he is a radical republican, and glories in the history of his party. 

On the i5tli of April, 1869, Miss Nettie Morrison, of Bradford, New Hamp- 
shire, became the wile of Lieutenant Reed, and they have two children living. 

Reed and Co. owns the entire block on which his store and house are located, 
on flennepin avenue; he has other propert\ in town, a farm adjoining town, 
other farms in McLeod and other counties, and large quantities of wild land scat- 
tered over the state — in all, more than sixteen hundred acres, improved and 
unimproved. In his one arm seems to be condensed the energy and efficiency 
oi halt a dozen ordinary arms, and he is DUe of the most striking examples of 
success under difficulties that the county presents. 



GOLD T. CURTIS, 

srii.i.n .ITER. 

GOLD TOMPKINS CURTLS was born on the 16th of August, 1821, at 
Morrisville (then Eatonville), Madison county, New York. He was the 
son of John G. Curtis and Ruth Bartlet, of Peterborough, New York, josiah 
Bartlet, one of the signers ot the "Declaration of Independence," was an ancestor 
of Ruth Ikirtlet. When only fourteen years of age he passed the preparatory 
examination at Yale College, but the facult\- were imwilling to admit him, on 
account of his youth. His father then took him to Hamilton College, New York, 
where he was admitted, and h-om whence he graduated in 1840 at the age of 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 497 

eio-hteen, the vouneest of his class, and at the commencement exercises was 
selected to deliver the salutatory oration. So high was his standing in college 
that Professor North thus wrote to a friend concerning him, after his death : " He 
was distinguished for rare scholarly habits, superior linguistical talents and fine 
oratorical powers, and attractive, genial, social qualities." 

After oraduatinof he commenced his leyal studies with ludge Monell, of Che- 
nango county. New York, and completed them in the office of the Hon. Horatio 
Seymour, at Utica, being admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. He com- 
menced practice at Belleville, Jefterson county, New York, and in 1850 was mar- 
ried to Mary Abigail Anderson, of that place. She was a daughter of Daniel 
Anderson and Jerusha Stark, whose great-uncle was General John Stark, of revo- 
lutionary fame, and she was second cousin to the late Chancellor Walworth, of 
New York. Daniel Anderson's grandmother was Margaret .Stuart, who was ol 
the royal family of Stuarts, one of the three Stuarts (the Protestant branch ) who 
emigrated from Scotland to America about 1742. The wife ot Mr. Curtis is 
therefore a lineal descendant of the beautiful, accomplished, but unfortunate 
Mary Queen of .Scots, over whose tragic fate the world will never cease to be 
interested. The writer of this sketch well remembers Mrs. Curtis' e.xtraordinary 
beauty when a girl, as well as her more than average natural abilities, which 
might well prove, in her case, the truth of Byron's line: 

"The life-blood tracks its parent lake." 

In 1854 Mr. Curtis moved to Stillwater, in the then Territory of Minnesota, 
and at once entered upon a large and lucrative practice. He held for a short 
period the offices of district attorney and judge of probate, but resigned them 
because they interfered with his law practice. 

In 1857 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention, and took 
a prominent and active part in the framing of the fundamental law ot the state. 

He was nominated in the fall of 1857 for district judge of the first judicial 
district of Minnesota, by the democrats, but the district being strongly republican 
he was defeated. 

In politics, he was a conservative democrat, one of the Silas Wright school, 
and foresaw the ruin impending to the democratic party, because of the Kansas- 
Nebraska iniquity, and made no scruples as a northern democrat to declare -'that 
the south had no right to ask for the extension of slavery, and the north no right 



to grant it. 



49S THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

At the brcakiiii^r out of the rebellion, from a pleasant lionie, a beloved wife, 
two younL;- children, a high social position, with a brilliant career before him in 
his chosen profession, he enlisted as a private. He spent largely of his means in 
recruiting a company, and at its organization was commissioned first lieutenant of 
5th Regiment Minnesota Volunteers, and on the 19th of April, 1862. was made 
captain His regiment was ordered south on the 1 ith of May, 1862. and partici- 
pated in the battle of Holly Springs, and in the hard struggle that preceded the 
evacuation of Corinth. 

He was about to be transferred to General Halleck's staff when he became a 
victim to disease (dysentery), was furloughed, reached Saint Louis trom the front, 
where his wife met him, and died on the 24th of July, 1S62. He was conveyed 
to his home in Stillwater, and buried there with masonic and military honors, 
the large audience in attendance showing the estimation in which he was held by 
those who knew him best. 

This appreciation can be no better expressed than in the language ot the 
speaker at his grave, who said: " Well ma\' the poor come to the funeral of Gold 
T. Curtis, — he was their friend; he belonged to no one class, he was every man's 
friend. No one coultl have been taken from our midst who will be so much 
missed as Gold T. Curtis, — missed in the street, missed in his office, missed in 
the court-room, missed in the sanctuary, missed everywhere." 

In professional life, Gold T. Curtis ranked with the ablest lawyers of his 
adopted state. In the conduct of a suit, and as a ])Uader in open court, he is said 
to have been almost without a rival. W ith a mind comprehensive, well furnished 
and tenacious, he never lost his self-possession or forgot the main points in the 
case. Socially, his sunny temperament and read\' wit made him the lite of the 
circle in which he moved. 

Religious and charitable objects were largely helped by his example, influ- 
ence and liberality. His cnlistnicnt was the self-sacrifice of a true patriot. His 
grandfather, David Curtis, had exhibited the same heroism at Sacket's Harbor, in 
the war of 1812, and it ma\- be that ancestral example helped to determine the 
struggle in his own mind before he finally ga\e himself to his countr\-. Writing 
from the front in those dark days, he said: " It is time part)' lines in the north 
should disappear ; the government must be sustained ; a stronger arm than that 
of man is guiding slavery to its fall." To his wife, a short time before his death, 
as if mentally lamenting the failure of his patriotic ambition to do something 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 499 

more for his country, he said: "I did not wish to die thus ingloriously." Upon 

the altar of country laying- all, and yet lamenting he had not more to give : 

" How sleep the brave who sink to rest. 
By all their country's wishes blest ! 
When Spring with dewy fingers cold, 
Returns to deck their hallowed mould, 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. 
There honor comes, a pilgrim gray. 
To press the turf that wraps their clay; 
And freedom shall ofttimes repair 
To dwell a weeping hermit there." 



HON. MILO WHITE, 

CHATFIELD. 

THE oldest merchant in Chatfield, and one of its most useful citizens, is 
Milo White, who is a direct descendant of Peregrine White, the first child 
born in the Plymouth Colony. His grandfather, Asa White, of Uxbridge, Massa- 
chusetts, settled in Vermont when it was almost a wilderness. Milo was born 
in Fletcher, Franklin county, Vermont, on the 17th of August, 1830, his parents 
being Josiah and Polly (Bailey) White. The Baileys were pioneers in that 
county, and, like the Whites, were agriculturists. The subject of this notice did 
not, however, take to farming; after receiving a very ordinary common-school 
education, at fifteen years of age he became a clerk in a store in his native town ; 
at eighteen went to Cambridge, La Moille county, and after clerking there one 
year followed the same business four years at Burlington, and 1853 went to New 
York city, there continuing in the same line of labor. 

In the spring of 1855 Mr. White came to Chatfield; in the autumn of the 
succeeding year opened a store here, and has never closed it. He has kept 
steadily at his business, attending to it with the utmost care, and as a merchant 
has been a splendid success. He has done far more to build up trade in Chat- 
field, and thus advance the interests of the town, than any other merchant here. 
It has been his rule to purchase everything which the farmers would bring to 
town, and to give them a fair price. His motto seems to be, "Live and let live," 
charging only a moderate profit on his merchandise. The result is that he has 
a very wide circle of customers in Fillmore and Olmsted counties, his house being 



500 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in the latter county. Chatfield is on the county line. He has always been very 
accommodating, sometimes carrying twenty thousand or thirty thousand dollars 
for his patrons, and never needlessly crowding any of them. He makes friends 
of everybody with whom he has dealings, being fair, honest and obliging. 

In 1871 Mr. White was elected state senator, and represented Olmsted county 
for five consecutive years in the legislature, being chairman of the committee on 
claims the first three or four sessions, and of finance the last session, lie had a 
hio-h standing in the legislature for Iiis in(hislr\-, practical good sense and integrity. 
He was treasurer of the \illage of Chatfield a few years, and lias served a long 
time on the school board, being always ready to aid in furtlicring local interests. 

Mr. While is a republican in politics, but lets nothing interfere with his busi- 
ness. He and his family attend the Methodist church. His wife was Miss Han- 
nah A. Ellis, of I'airfax, Vermont ; married on the 26th of [une, 1838. They have 
three children ami have lost two. 



COLONEL HANS MATTSON, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

THE subject of this sketch is a native of Onestad. Sweden, where he was 
born on the 2_^d of December, 1S32. The parents were Matts and Ilgena 
(Larson) Mattson, well-to-do people of the agricultural class. Tliey are both 
living, at present residing at Vasa, Minnesota. 

The primary education of Hans was derived from a high classical school at 
Christianstad, In his native land. He entered the military service of his country 
as a cadet of artillery. In his seventeenth year. Possessing an adventurous spirit. 
which soon became restless under the forced inactivity of the army, the garrison 
life of a soldier became monotonous, and when eighteen years old he left the ser- 
vice, and was among the first of his native townsmen to emigrate to the United 
States. ,A.rrIvIng here In [une, 1.S51, he spent two memorable years, such as but 
few experience, in working his way in the new world. Unused to hard labor, 
unaccpiainted with the usages and language of the people, and suffering from ill 
health, he became reduced to extreme poverty. But his was not a nature to suc- 
cumb to any obstacles, however great they might apjjear. He sought and 
obtained work as a cabin-boy in a sailing-vessel plying on our eastern coast, then 





c^^ 



r-/ 




^^^^-^^^i-^^-^'^Z^i^ - 



~T-j*i^SSMiZiSf^Iltnl^Sr -' '-• 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 503 

on a farm in New Hampshire, and afterward with a shovel on an Illinois railroad. 
His second winter in this country, owing to the kind assistance of friends, he was 
enabled to spend at school, where he soon mastered the English laneuaee. 

In the summer of 1853 his parents and nearest relatives, together with a laro-e 
party of their countrymen, emigrated to the new world, and were conducted by 
Mr. Mattson from Boston, Massachusetts, where they landed, to Moline, Illinois. 
The object of this party was to find government land on which to settle, and Mr. 
Mattson, with others, was selected to go to Minnesota and secure a suitable loca- 
tion. After prospecting in various parts of the state, they finaHy chose the pres- 
ent township of Vasa, Goodhue count)-, whither they removed in August, 1853. 
Being the only one of the party who could speak English, Mr. Mattson was 
naturally looked upon as the leader, thus finding himself, while yet in his twenty- 
first year, at the head of an important settlement. 

During his residence in Vasa he took an active part in the organization of the 
township ; organized the first school district ; laid out the first road, and officiated 
as lay reader at the first religious services of the colony, held on the open prairie, 
near where the church of Vasa now stands. 

He early began speculating in real estate and merchandising, and followed 
that business until the great financial crisis of 1857 swept away all his accumula- 
tions. He immediately began the stud)' of law with Warren Bristol, then a prom- 
inent lawyer in Red Wing, Minnesota, and now judge of New Mexico ; after one 
year's close application was admitted to the bar, and at once commenced practice. 
During his professional studies he was elected city clerk of Red Wing, and on a 
salary of one hundred and fifty dollars a year supported himself and young wife ; 
in 1858 was elected county auditor, and reelected in i860; resigned in 1861, and 
entered the Union army as captain of company D, 3d Minnesota Volunteer In- 
fantry ; was promoted major in 1862, lieutenant-colonel in 1863, and colonel of 
his regiment in 1864; served in this capacity till October, 1865, when he brought 
home his regiment, after more than four years' honorable service. 

The winter following his return from the south Colonel Mattson formed a 
law partnership with C. C.Webster, Esq., which continued until August, 1866, 
when he accepted the position of editor-in-chief of a prominent Swedish news- 
paper in Chicago, Illinois. The following January, Governor Marshall, of Min- 
nesota, appointed him secretary of the state board of immigration, which position 
he held several years, doing the state such excellent service in settling its broad 

57 



504 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

domain with his industrious countrymen, that to him must be t,nven the credit of 
a large part of its marvelous growth. In 1S69 he was elected secretary of state, 
but before the term of office expired he resigned to accept the appointment of 
land agent for northern Europe, in the interests of the great railroad corporations 
of which Jay Cooke, the well-known railway king, was the head. After remain- 
ing over four years in Europe, with his family, in discharge of the duties assigned 
him, he returned to Minnesota. In 1870, while secretary of state, he represented 
Minnesota in the national immigration convention held at Indianapolis, Indiana, 
to secure a revision of the existing laws relating to immigration. In that body 
he took a prominent and leading part, and was one of a committee of five ap- 
pointed to lay the matter before the national congress and President Grant, the 
result of which was the enactment by congress of the present vastly improved 
legislation in favor of immigrants settling in this country. 

Colonel Mattson is largely interested in real estate in the northwestern part 
of the state ; is editor-in-chief of the " Stats Tidning," a prominent Swedish jour- 
nal in Minneapolis; also a large owner and general manager of the "Swedish 
Tribune," of Chicago, one of the most important foreign and home papers in the 
United States. 

Politically, he has always been identified with the republican party, taking an 
active interest in all matters pertaining to the public welfare, and has frequently 
represented his party in different conventions. In 1876 he was one of the presi- 
dential electors for Minnesota; has been an active Freemason for twenty years, 
in which order he received the degree of Knight Templar in 1864, and during his 
subsequent visit to Sweden was the recipient of high official honors from the fra- 
ternity in that country. 

On the 23d of November, 1855, in Yasa, Minnesota, Colonel Mattson was 
united in marriage to Miss Cherstin Peterson. She is a native of Ballingslof, 
Sweden; was born on the 5th of April, 1837, and came to this country with her 
parents in 1854. The fruits of this union were ten children, of which only five 
survive: Nanny Adelia, born on the 26th of July, 1859, now a student in the 
State University; Willhelm Hans, born on the i8th of March, i86i,tiow a stu- 
dent at Shattuck Military School, at Faribault, Minnesota ; Matts Theodore, born 
on the 7th of August, 1868; Edgar Lincoln, born on the 9th of October, 1871, 
and Nils Sture, born on the 26th of May, 1876. 

As a writer, lecturer and public speaker, as well as in his private life, Colonel 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 505 

Mattson has always sought to inculcate the true idea of Americanizing all men 
who have chosen America for their home, while at the same time none could feel 
more honorable pride in his Scandinavian parentage than he. The following- 
brief address, which he made before the state republican convention on the 9th 
of September, 1869, upon accepting the nomination for secretary of state, em- 
bodies his views upon this subject so clearly and concisely that we deem it worthy 
of reproduction in this sketch of his lite: 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: Allow me to tender you my hearty 
thanks for the honor you have conferred upon me by this nomination. I feel doubly gratified for the 
very large majority you gave me. The time does not admit of any extensive remarks upon my part, 
yet so much lias been said lately regarding the Scandinavian element, that the subject, perhaps, 
requires an explanation from me; and, as the chosen representative of the Scandinavian people of 
this state in the present campaign, I am authorized to express their views, and I do so from a thor- 
ough knowledge. It is true that we love our native hills, that we cherish with sacred tenderness the 
memories of our heroic ancestors ; but we have left our beloved land, — we have strewn the last flow- 
ers upon the graves of our forefathers, — and have come here to stay, come here to live, and come here 
to die. We are not a clannish people, nor do we desire to build up a Scandinavian nationality in 
your midst. You have known us here for many years; you have seen us come among you unacquaint- 
ed with your language and your customs, and yet I know that you will bear me witness how readily 
and fraternally v^t have mingled with you, learned your language and adopted your ways, and how 
naturally our children grow up as Americans, side by side with yours. We have been cordially re- 
ceived in this great west by your own pioneers, and have become prosperous and happy. Yes! we 
love this great country of freedom, and we wish to be and remain Americans. 

Such sentiments cannot but gain the respect and confidence of all men, and 

for carrying out in practice these high principles of duty to his adopted country 

Colonel Mattson is justly esteemed as an honorable and upright citizen. 



HON. JACOB FRANKENFIELD, 

HENDERSON. 

JACOB FRANKENFIELD, collector of customs for the Minnesota district, 
is a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, dating his birth August 7, 1838. 
His parents were Samuel and Susan (Stem) Frankenfield, both of German pedi- 
gree. When he was ten years of age his father died, and he went to Northamp- 
ton county, and at fourteen to Luzerne county, in his native state. He received 
only a common-school education ; learned the trade of a tinsmith ; worked at it 
as a journeyman in Carbon county, Pennsylvania, and Milford village. New Jer- 
sey, about two years, and in the spring of 1857 came to Minnesota, tarrying a 



5o6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

few months in Saint Paul, and tiien settling in Henderson, his home since the 
autumn of that year. Here he opened a hardware and hollowware store, and is 
still in that business. With the exception of a few months at the start, he was 
alone in trade until 1869, when an elder brother, Jonas Frankenfield, became his 
partner, and they are still together, theirs being the leading house in their line of 
goods in Henderson. They have a wide three-story store; usually carry a heavy 
stock, including agricultural machinery, and are energetic, enterprising, public- 
spirited men. 

Mr. Frankenfield was for six years a member and treasurer of the school 
board of independent district No. 1, Henderson ; county commissioner one year; 
deput)-collector of internal revenue four years ; state senator in 1874 and 1875, 
and has been collector of customs for the Minnesota district since the 2d of 
March, 1875. The office is at Pembina, Dakota Territory, where he spends about 
half of his time. He has uniformly acted with the republican party; is one of 
its leaders in Sibley county, and a sterling man in all respects. 

Mr. Frankenfield has been married since the 4th of April, 1864, his wife being 
Miss Jeanie Fulmer, ot Bridgeton, Bucks county, Pennsylvania; they have lost 
one child and have three children living. 



GENERAL HORATIO P. VAN CLEVE, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

HORATIO PHILLIPS VAN CLEVE, adjutant-general of Minnesota, 
was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on the 23d of November, 1809. His 
parents were John Van Cleve, a physician, and Louisa Anna nee Houston. His 
paternal ancestors were from Holland, while the maternal were from Great Brit- 
ain. His mother's father was a member of the continental congress just previous 
to the revolution. Horatio was a student at Princeton College, and left that 
institution to accept a cadetship at West Point, at which school he graduated in 
1831, receiving second lieutenant's commission in the 5th United States Infantry, 
on the ist of July of that year. On the i ith of September, 1836, he resigned his 
commission and removed to Michigan, where he engaged in the more peaceful pur- 
suits of civil engineering, farming, etc., until November, 1856, when he removed 
to, and settled at. Long Prairie, Minnesota, where he engaged in stock raising. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 507 

At the commencement of the war of the rebellion in 1861 he tendered his ser- 
vices to his country, and the governor of Minnesota gave him the command of 
the 2d Minnesota regiment, on the 22d of July of that year. He reported for duty 
with his regiment to General W. T. Sherman, at Louisville, Kentucky, and in 
December was assigned to the command of General Geo. H. Thomas, then at 
Lebanon, Kentucky. He commanded the 2d Minnesota at the battle of Mill 
Spring, on the 19th of January, 1862. After this battle he marched his regi- 
ment to Louisville, Kentucky, and accompanied General Thomas, by way of 
Nashville, to Pittsburgh Landing. Having been promoted brigadier-general by 
President Lincoln, on the 21st of March, 1S62, on his arrival at Pittsburgh 
Landing General Buell gave him the command of a brigade in the division 
of General T. L. Crittenden, whom he accompanied in the campaign before 
Corinth, Mississippi ; through northern Alabama, at Battle Creek, Tennessee, 
and from there by the way of Nashville to Louisville, Kentucky. At Louisville 
he took command of the division. General Crittenden beincj assioned to the com- 
mand of a corps. General Van Cleve was with General Buell in his pursuit of 
Bragg's army, as far as Wild Cut, Kentucky, at which point he turned and 
marched his division, by way of Somerset and Columbia, Kentucky, to Nash- 
ville, Tennessee. In the latter part of December he marched with General 
Rosecrans' army to attack the rebels under Bragg, at Murfreesboro, and was 
engaged with his division at the battle of Stone River, on the 31st of December, 
1862. Here General Van Cleve was disabled by a wound, and compelled to 
leave the field on the ist ot January, 1863. Upon his recovery he resumed the 
command of his division. He was with the Army of the Cumberland under 
Rosecrans in his advance on Chattanooga, his division, being on the extreme 
left, marching" by way of McMinnsville and the Sequatchee valley. He was en- 
gaged at Ringgold, Georgia; at Gordon's Mills on the iith to 13th of .Septem- 
ber, 1S63, and at Chickamauga on the 19th and 20th of the same month; was in 
command at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from December, 1863, until August, 1865, 
when he was mustered out, after over four years of active service. On the 13th 
of March of the latter year he was commissioned major-general, "for gallant and 
meritorious service during the war." 

He returned to Minnesota, where he was appointed adjutant-general in Jan- 
uary, 1866. On the 3d of March, 1871, he was commissioned postmaster at 
Saint Anthony, in which capacity he served until the 31st of July, 1872, when 



508 THE UNITED STATES BJOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Saint Anthony being united to the cit\- ot Minneapolis, the office was discon- 
tinued ; was reappointed adjutant-general on the ist of March, 1876, which office 
he now holds. 

In politics, the General was originally a whig, but since the formation of the 
republican party he has given the latter his faithful support. 

General X'^an Cleve was married on the 22d of March, 1836, to Miss Charlotte 
Ouisconsin Clark, daughter of Major Nathan Clark, of the United States Army. 
The name Ouisconsin was bestowed on her owing to the incident of her birth 
occurring at Prairie du Chien, at the mouth of the Wisconsin river, while her 
parents were on their way with her father's regiment to locate a fort at the junc- 
tion of the Saint Peter and Mississippi rivers, where Fort Snelling now stands. 
Mrs. Van Cleve, while marrying a military husband, was not only a soldier's 
daughter, but also the descendant of military ancestors, who did good service in 
the war of independence. Her mother was a daughter ot Colonel Thomas 
Yonge Seymour, an officer in the revolution, who receives favorable mention in 
the " Life of Washington," and who was the escort of General Burgoyne after 
he was captured. His portrait may be seen at the present time hanging in the 
National Gallery at Washington ; also a cousin ot Governor Thomas H. Sey- 
mour, of Connecticut, and a relative of Governor Seymour, of New York; also 
a relative of Colonel Ledyard, a brave officer who was killed at Fort Griswold 
by a cowardly British officer, who stabbed him through with his own sword after 
it had been surrendered. The shirt which Colonel Ledyard had on at the time 
is still preserved by the historical society at Hartford as a memento of this das- 
tardly murder, — for a murder it was, and should be called nothing else. The 
union of General and Mrs. Van Cleve has been blessed by twelve children, seven 
of whom are living. Their first-born, a son, lived to maturity, and died in Califor- 
nia ; the second, a daughter, now deceased, married Mortimer Thomson, who is 
familiarly known as the writer of the " Doestick's Papers"; the ne.Kt three chil- 
dren died in infancy ; then followed Elizabeth A., who married W^n. \V. Hall, and 
resides in Honolulu; Horatio Seymour, who married Miss Harriet Hemiup ; 
Mortimer, married to Miss Sarah Adams, of Providence, a relative of Hon. 
Charles F. Adams ; Samuel Houston, immarried ; Paul Ledyard, who married 
Miss Alice Davis, of Minneapolis ; John Risley, and Carl Ernest. 

General Van Cleve and his estimable wife are both worthy members of the 
Presbyterian church, entirely agreeing in religious matters, as they have in every- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 50g 

thing else, during more than forty-two years of wedded life. As a man, General 
Van Cleve is loved and respected by all who know him. In the field, he was ever 
a thorough soldier and a gallant officer. As a civil officer, he is conscientious 
and faithful in the discharge of every duty. 

Mrs. Van Cleve is a lady of great force of character, strong in her convictions 
of what is right and just, and fearless in following the dictates of her conscience. 
She was one of the original founders of the " Sisterhood of Bethany," — a society 
which has done a noble work in Minneapolis, in seeking to save and reform fallen 
women. Since the formation of the sisterhood she has held the position of presi- 
dent, and through the medium of lectures and familiar society talks, she has 
enlisted the active sympathy ot a large portion of the community. Though this 
work, of late years, has commanded more of her time and active support than any 
other, yet she is none the less heartily in sympathy with every undertaking which 
tends to enlighten and elevate society. 



HON. FRANKLIN H. WAITE, 

MANKATO. 

FRANKLIN HARPER WAITE, late district judge and state senator, is a 
native of Windham county, Vermont, and was born in the town of Wards- 
borough, on the 27th of February, 18 13. His parents were Joseph Waite, lawyer, 
also born in Wardsborough, and Olive Davis. His grandfather, Silas Waite, was 
a teamster in the revolutionary war, and his maternal grandfather and two or three 
brothers were soldiers at the same period. The Waites were from Massachusetts, 
When Franklin was between three and four years old the family moved to Chau- 
tauqua county. New York, settling in the present town of Carroll, where Joseph 
Waite farmed awhile, subsequently studying and practicing law in Jamestown. 

The subject of this brief memoir received his education at the Fredonia Acad- 
emy, teaching school, meantime, four winters. He read law at Jamestown with 
his father and Samuel A. Brown, and was admitted to the bar at a term of the 
supreme court held in New York city in May, 1836. 

Mr. Waite practiced in Jamestown for fifteen years, holding, during portions 
of that time, the offices of postmaster and judge of the court of common pleas. 

In 1852 he moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin ; practiced there eight years, 



5IO THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

and in i860 removed to his present home. Here he practiced steadily for ten 
years; in January, 1870, took his seat on the bench as jiidye of the sixth judicial 
district, and resigned in the autumn of 1S74, being on the bench a little less than 
five years. He is well-grounded in the law, not disposed to technicalities, but to 
a liberal construction of the law in practice, and made an impartial, upright and 
honest judge. He is still in active practice, and has a large business, being of the 
lirm of Waite and Freeman. His age, experience, standing as a lawyer and as a 
citizen, secure for him the highest respect of the bar and the community. 

He was state senator in 1878; has always acted with the democratic party, 
and has long been an inlluential member of it. He was a candidate for congress 
in 1850 for the district embracing Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties. New 
York, and in 1S74 in the first district of Minnesota. Both were republican dis- 
tricts, and he was defeated, as he had reason to expect, but his vote, particularly 
in New York, showed that he was stronger than his party. 

Miss Adeline Holman, of Jamestown, New York, became the wife of Judge 
Waite on the iith of June, 1844, and they have had four children, and lost two 
of them. One died in infancy, and another, Lawrence Adams, aged ten years, 
was drowned in the Minnesota river while heroically striving to save a companion 
from drowning. The other lad was saved. Of the living, Josephine O. is the 
wife of Dr. William Frisbee, of Mankato, and Augustus F. is a student in the 
local state normal school. 



PROFESSOR JONATHAN L. NOYES. A.M., 

FARIBAULT. 

JONATHAN LOVEJOY NOYES, son of James and Lucy Abigail (Love- 
joy) Noyes, was born in Windham, Rockingham county. New Hampshire, on 
the 13th of June, 1827. The Noyeses were of English descent, and early settlers 
in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. James Noyes was born in Wilton, New 
Hampshire, and farmed many years in Windham, where he died, on the 26th of 
December, 1870, aged eighty-four years. His wife died in Andover. Massachu- 
setts, on the 2d of February, 1874, aged eighty-one years. 

The subject of this sketch remained at home till fourteen years of age, when 
his father sent him to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, paying his 
expenses one year. After that the son was thrown upon his own resources, and 





.ll,rS3.saL3<S:>'^13Bo-t!<^r^:^'^ 



Jnf^lrSJ. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



513 



determined to continue his studies and secure a liberal education. He connected 
himself with what was called the Teachers' Seminary, at Andover, at the head of 
which was Rev. Dr. Lyman Coleman, and the principal of the preparatory de- 
partment was Professor William H. Wells, author of " Wells's English Grammar." 
There he spent three more years, working on the farm in the summer season and 
teaching each winter, and then spent three years in Phillips Academy, under 
Dr. Samuel H. Taylor. After ending his academic studies he taught one year 
in Andover; entered Yale College in 1848; graduated in the class of 1852, and 
immediately entered on an engagement to teach in the Pennsylvania Institution 
for the Deaf and Dumb, in Philadelphia, simply to procure funds for liquidating 
debts contracted while in college. He found the profession a useful and pleasant 
one, — an intimation, as he thought, from Providence that he should make it his 
life-work, — and this, thus far, he has done. He taught six years in Philadelphia, 
two years at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, six years in the American Asylum in Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, and moved thence to Faribault in 1866, to take the superintend- 
ency of the Minnesota Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and 
the Blind. During that year the foundation of the north wing of the present 
state building for the deaf and dumb was laid on the high bluff on the east side 
of Straight river ; five years later the foundation of the south wing was laid, and 
in 1878 the main building was completed, the whole grand structure built of blue 
limestone, in the Erench style, being two hundred and sixty-six feet long and 
three stories above the basement, and surrounded by fifty-four acres of land do- 
nated by the citizens of Faribault. It is modeled internally according to the taste 
and judgment of the superintendent, with almost every conceivable convenience 
for such a school, and is the finest building of any kind owned by the State of 
Minnesota. Its whole cost was about one hundred and seventy-five thousand 
dollars. Half a mile south, on the same side of the river, is the Institution for the 
Blind, under the same superintendent and board of trustees, in a large new brick 
building, standing by the side of Alexander Faribault's late residence, in an in- 
closure of ninety-seven acres of land, — the property of the commonwealth. Dur- 
ing the year ending in June, 187S, there were fourteen pupils in the Institution 
for the Blind, and one hundred and three in the Deaf and Dumb department, — 
all under most excellent management. 

Professor Noyes left a very pleasant and desirable situation at Hartford when 

he came to Minnesota, but it is to be hoped that he has never regretted the step 

.?8 



514 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

which he took in cominy to this young state and taking an active part in the found- 
ing of this institution. He brought with him large experience in teaching and man- 
aging such schools, and the best of executive abilities, and it was fortunate for the 
state that such a man was secured at that particular juncture, before the first 
stone was laid for the first wing. He is a man of most tender feelings, heartily 
sympathizing with the unfortunate, and striving with the utmost diligence to se- 
cure to each pupil in the institution not only a good educaticMi, luit knowledge of 
a useful trade. The citizens of Faribault, the trustees, and all ha\ ing a knowledge 
of the management of this institution, speak in very strong terms of commenda- 
tion of the superintendent. 

Professor Noyes is a christian gentleman, as well as a good scholar; a mem- 
ber and deacon of the Congregational church, and a man of the highest standing 
in the community. 

On the 2istof July, 1862, Miss Eliza H. W^adsworth, of Hartford, Connecticut, 
became the wife of Professor Noyes, and they have one daughter, Alice Wads- 
worth, aged fifteen years. Mrs. Noyes is a descendant of Colonel Jeremiah Wads- 
worth, who hid the charter in the oak tree, known for more than two centuries 
as the "Charter Oak." Mrs. Noyes was a teacher for seven j'ears in the American 
Asylum, and was the first teacher of articulation in that institution. She is a 
lady of fine taste and culture, an earnest christian worker, an adept in reading 
human character, and profoundly sympathizing with her husband in his noble 
work. 



COLONEL EDWIN A. FOLSOM, 

STILLWATEli. 

EDWIN AUGUSTUS FOLSOM, son of Nicholas D. Folsom, merchant 
and lumberman, and Celina Blake, dates his birth at Exeter, New Hamp- 
shire, lune 30, 1833. When he was seven years old the family moved to Ban- 
gor, Maine, where he was educated in the graded schools. At sixteen years 
of age he conimenced labor as a clerk in a store at Bangor; two years later 
did office work for another mercantile house, and in the spring of 1856 came to 
the west, settling in Stillwater. Here he gave six years to bookkeeping for 
Hersey, .Staples antl Co., continuing in that position until the second year of the 
civil war. In .\ugust, 1862, Mr. F'olsom raised a compan\- and went into the 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 515 

8th Minnesota Volunteers as captain of company C, serving first two seasons on 
the frontier, battling with the Sioux Indians, and one year at the south. During 
the last year he was on staff duty most of the time, first with General Ruger, 
then with General Schofield. He was promoted to major and lieutenant-colonel, 
and before being mustered out, at the end of three years, was breveted colonel. 
He made a good record as a military man, but nobody ever hears him boast. 

On returning to Stillwater, Colonel Folsom was elected treasiu'er of Wash- 
ington county, and served six years, leaving a clean and satisfactory record. He 
discharges every duty with scrupulous regard to taithlulness, and the people have 
great confidence in his integrity. 

For the last seven or eight years he has been in the logging and general mer- 
cantile business, in company with David Bronson, the firm name being Bronson 
and Folsom. They have a highly reputable name, and are doing about one 
hundred thousand dollars per annum. 

The politics of Colonel Folsom are republican, and at times he has been 
quite active, Latterly, business seems to absorb his attention, though he cher- 
ishes his political principles with the utmost sincerity and tenacity. 

He is a Knight Templar among the Freemasons, and an attendant at the 
Protestant Episcopal church. 

Miss Frances E. Staples, daughter of Samuel Staples, of .Stillwater, became 
the wife of Colonel Folsom on the 12th of October, 1862, and they have two 
children livino'- 



WILLIAM S. WELLS, 

FOREST MILLS. 

WILLIAM STEWART WELLS, son of Henry and Cassy Stewart Wells, 
and one of the most enterprising business-men in Goodhue county, Minne- 
sota, was born in Elmira, New York, on the 26th of June, 1839. His grandfather 
was a seafariu"- man of Massachusetts. His maternal grandfather was in the 
second war with the mother country. 

William remained in Elmira until sixteen years of age, receiving such mental 
discipline as the graded schools of that city afforded. In 1855 he came as far 
west as Illinois; worked at farming two seasons in Du Page county, and in the 
spring of 1857 walked from Naperville to Minnesota, after a drove ot cattle, at 



5i6 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

twelve dollars per month, holding up at Zumbrota, ready for any kind of decent 
work. He made a claim, broke land, split rails and taught school at ten dollars 
per month, and was engaged in farming and teaching when the civil war broke out. 

In September, 1861, he enlisted as a private in company 1, 2d Minnesota In- 
fantry, and in that capacity accompanied that gallant regiment through all its 
fortunes ami misfortunes, from Mill Springs to Chickamauga, receiving a few 
sli"'ht wounds. At the last-named place he was shot almost to pieces, having a 
fearful wound in his right thigh which shortened liis limlx He was wounded on 
the 19th of September, 1863 ; lay a prisoner on ihc ballle-field ten days, without 
suro-ical assistance and suffering the pangs of hunger, yet too pluck)' to die on a 
rebel battle-tield. He was paroled, taken more dead than alive to Chattanooga, 
and remained there until the 9th of March, 1864, not being able to walk for a 
year after receiving this wound. At the date just mentioned he was discharged, 
and after visiting his native state, returned to Minnesota in June, 1S64. 

In 1868, in connection with H. H. Palmer and \V. B. Dickey, he built the 
Forest Mills, one and a half miles east of Zumbrota, on the north hrancli of the 
Zumbro river. The niills have five run of stone, and a capacity for thirt\- thou- 
sand barrels of merchant Hour per annum. .Subsequently Mr. Palnu'r disposed 
of his interest to L. F. Hubbard and William P. Brown, of Red Wing. Mr. 
Wells has an interest, also, in the Mazeppa Mills, which were built entirely under 
his supervision, and contain nine run of stone. Mazeppa is east of Forest Mills, 
on the same stream. 

Mr. Wells has a livery stable at Benson, Swift county, — the largest in the 
state west of Minneapolis, — and other property scattered widely over the state. 

He was a jjrimi; mover in bringing the Minnesota Midland railway to Zum- 
brota in the spring of 1878. In pushing tlirough this enterprise he showed a 
degree of cm^rgy and tact not often witnessed in the valley of the Zumliro. He 
put both mont;y and muscle into this enti-r[)rise, and has a hand in nearly every 
work that tends to develop the commonwealth. 

Mr. Wells has never held a political, civil or military office, and never would 
accept one, contented to be an independent " private" in all the relations of life. 
He came into the state on foot with his worldly possessions, including heredita- 
ments, in a small carpet-sack; all he has is of his own hands' earning, and he is 
now among the leading business-men of Minnesota, regarded as the peer oi the 



best. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 517 

On the 3d of July, 1864, he was united in marriage with Miss Emma Dickey, 
of Goodhue county, and of five children, the result of this union, four are still 
livine. 



HON. ALPHONSO BARTO, 

SAUK CENTER. 

ALPHONSO BARTO, lieutenant-governor of Minnesota in 1874 and 1875, 
^ is a native of Chittenden county, Vermont, and was born at Hinesburgh on 
the 27th of May, 1834. His parents, William R. and Mary (Gage) Barto, be- 
longed to the agricultural class. The family is of French descent, and the name 
was originally spelt Barteau, the great-grandfather of Alphonso coming to this 
country before the colonies struck for independence, and engaging in that bloody 
and successful struoorle. The Gages were English. William R. Barto moved 
with his family to Ferrisburgh, Addison county, when our subject was three or 
four years old. The son farmed in Ijoyhood, finishing his literary education at a 
select school taught by Professor B. B. Allen at Vergennes, being a student 
under him three or four years, and teaching six winters, commencing at fifteen. 

In 1855 Mr. Barto came as far west as Elgin, Kane county, Illinois, and, after 
farming awhile, read law with Mayborne and Brown, of Geneva, same county. 

In August, 1862, Mr. Barto enlisted as a private in company K, 52d Illinois 
Infantry; was promoted from time to time till he became captain of the com- 
pany, serving a little more than three years, and being in sixteen or eighteen 
engagements, yet never receiving a wound. He was mustered out on the 25th of 
October, 1865, at Rome, Georgia. 

On returning to Elgin, Captain Barto was elected treasurer ot Kane county; 
served his term of two years, and in December, 1869, settled in Sauk Center, 
where he has since resided and been in the practice ot his profession. P'or some 
time he was in the firm of Miner and Barto ; was alone a year or two, and since 
the 1st of September, 1878, has been of the firm of Barto and Calhoun, his part- 
ner being David T. Calhoun, late of Pierce City, Missouri. Captain Barto is a 
sound lawyer, has a dignified and impressive presence, and, being a good advocate, 
uniformly has a favorable influence on a jury. He has a remunerative practice. 

Captain Barto was a member of the lower branch of the legislature in 1872 
and 1873, and in the autumn of 1873 was elected lieutenant-governor on the 



5l8 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DJCTJONARY. 

ticket with Cashman K. Davis. He presided with dignity over the upper house 
oi' the legislature. 

Lieutenant-governor Barto is an out-and-out republican ; has never wavered 
an iota in his political faith, but seems to be rapidly working out of politics, evi- 
dently determined to make the law his special life-work. He was made a Mason 
in 1 86 1, and is a Knight Templar and Sovereign Prince of the Royal Secret, 
Scottish Rite Masonry. 

He was tirst married on the 13th of October, 1854, to Miss Harriet E. Hitch- 
cock, of Shoreham, Vermont. She had three children, and died on the i ith of 
October, 1865. Only one of the children, Lyman R., aged twenty-two, a drug- 
gist at Fargo, Dakota Territor\, is living. His second wife was Miss Lottie A. 
Allen, of Elgin, Illinois; married on the 171I1 t)f October, 1866. He has one child 
by her, William Allen, aged seven years. 



HON. JEREMIAH RUSSELL, 

SAVK RA/'//>S. 

ONE of the frontiersmen of what is now the State of Minnesota, and a [)rom- 
inent man in Benton count)', is Jeremiah Russell, one of the founders of 
Sauk Rapids. He was born in Eaton, Madison county, New York, on the 2d ot 
February, 1809, and in his infancy his parents, Arnold and Hannah (.Stanley) 
Russell, moved to l*"ri.;donia, in the western part of the state. His father was a 
joiner by trade, and a musician in the second war with England. Jeremiah was 
educated in the district school and academy at Fredonia, learning also, when quite 
young, to set type in the office of the Fredonia " Gazette," the first paper started 
in Chautau(|ua county. 

In his seventeenth year Jeremiah returnt;d to central New York, worked in a 
printing-office at Geneva and other places, and taught schools, in all. a little less 
than a year. Subsecpiently he was a clerk in a store at Palmyra, Wajne county, 
several years; in the spring and summer of 1835 traveled o\cr the Territory of 
Michigan and the State of Indiana ; visited Chicago and Milwaukee in the latter 
part of the same year, and then went into the Lake Superior countr\-, and for two 
years was superintendent for a mining company, w'ith his stations at Left-lland 
river, near the head of the lake, and at a point near Iron river. In 1S37 he went 



I 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



519 



to Saint Croix, Wisconsin, and made a claim with Franklin Steele and others; in 
1839 had a contract for doing the blacksmithing, etc., for the Indians at Lake 
Pokagoma, Minnesota, and still later at La Point, on Lake Superior. 

In 1848 Mr. Russell came to Crow Wing, Minnesota, acting as agent for C. 
N. W. Borup and C. H. Oakes, Indian traders and fur dealers. The next 3'ear 
these parties became associated with P. Chauteau, junior, and Company, in the 
American Fur Company ; and in the autumn of 1849 Mr. Russell went to a point 
two miles above Sauk Rapids, where this company established a trading-post, and 
made their headquarters for transporting articles into the Indian country, he hav- 
ing charge of their store. While there, he also opened a farm of one hundred 
and thirty acres, the first enterprise of the kind in this vicinity. He also estab- 
lished the Sauk Rapids " Frontiersman." 

At the end of about four years he moved down the river opposite the present 
village of .Sauk Rapids, made a claim, including the water-power on the west side 
of the river, and there worked his land and edited his paper. During this period, 
in 1854, he aided in surveying and laying out the present village of Sauk Rapids, 
there beine at that time only two or three families here. He had an interest in 
the water-power on the east side at that time, and others were beginning to be 
attracted by this power and the promise of the town. 

About 1857 Mr. Russell located on the east side of the stream, and Sauk 
Rapids proper has since been his home. He disposed of his interest in the 
paper soon after crossing the river. 

Mr. Russell retains most of his property on the west side of the river, all 
excepting the hydraulic privileges, in which he retains only a three-twentieth in- 
terest, having disposed of the rest to a company seven or eight years ago. He 
has a pleasant home in the northern part of the village, is living somewhat at his 
ease, and has the warmest esteem of his fellow-citizens. 

Mr. Russell was treasurer of Benton county for several years at an early day, 
when it was much larger than it now is ; he was also auditor one term, and has 
served as justice of the peace at sundry times. He was a member in the first 
territorial legislature ( 1849), but spent only one week in that body, going to the 
capitol to cast a vote for a single measure. He told his constituents, when nomi- 
nated, that, if elected, he would not attend the session, and he was very reluctant 
to spend even a week there. He was a democrat till the ci\il war commenced; 
has been a republican since. 



520 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

He was a member ot tlic Episcopal church in early life; is now connected 
with the Congregational church, being one of its deacons ; also a trustee of the 
society. Though exposed to the temptations of a frontier life, he has always pre- 
served an untarnished name. 

The wife of Mr. Russell was Miss Sophia Oakes, daughter of Charles H. 
Oakes, whose sketch appears in this volume. They were married on the 20th of 
September, 1843, and have had seven children, losing three of them: Stanley, 
the eklest child, has a family, and lives in Sherburne county, Minnesota; Mary M. 
is the wife of William L. Nieman, [)OStmaster and proprietor of the " Sentinel" 
at .Sauk Rapids ; the other two, Jerry A. and Julia A., are single. 



HON. ABRAM M. FRIDLEY, 

BECKER. 

FEW men in Minnesota, outside oi Saint Paul, are more fully identified with 
the early history of the state than Abram McCormack Fridley, who was 
born on the ist of May, 181 8, in the town of Painted Post, now Corning, Steuben 
county, New York. His parents, John and Catherine Heckcrt Friillcy, were 
Pennsylvanians, whose parents immigrated from Germany to this country. John 
Fridley was a hat manufacturer, and in his youth the son lumbered, receiving 
such an education as the common schools of New York afforded forty and fifty 
years ago. At twenty-one years of age he became deputy-sheriff of Steuben 
county ; afterward was appointed collector of canal tolls at the port of Corning, 
an office of great responsibility at that time. 

In April, 1 85 1, Mr. Fridley arrived in Minnc^sota Territory as agent for the 
Winnebago Indians, then located at Long Prairie, Todd county, that office giving 
him the title of major. That year he was admitted to practice law in all the 
courts of the territory, having read law in Corning, New York, with Judge John- 
son. Two years later he moved to Saint Paul, and that year (1853) was elected 
sheriff of Ramsey county. The next year he removed to the Falls of Saint 
Anthony, and was elected to the territorial legislature. A little later he moved 
foin^ miles above the falls, where he farmed several years, — while there, represent- 
ing tlu' district twice in the state legislature. He afterward moved into the village 
of Manoniin. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 52 1 

In 1869 Major Fridley settled at Becker, Sherburne county, on the Saint Paul 
and Pacific railroad (branch line), where he is engaged in farming, having six 
hundred acres in crops in the season of 1878. Since becoming a resident of this 
county he has been in the legislature twice, being a member of that body the last 
time in session of 1878. He is a good worker in such a body, and always has 
the interests of the state at heart. 

He was a regent of the State University four years, and has been a member 
of the executive committee of the State Agricultural Society the last five years. 

Major Fridley was a whig while there was such a party, and since its dissolu- 
tion has acted with the democracy. In i860 he was a delegate to the national 
democratic convention held at Charleston, South Carolina, and also of the one 
held at Baltimore. He has been an influential man in the party. His religious 
views are rather liberal, and have been subject to frequent changes. 



HON. CHARLES E. FLANDRAU, 

SAINT PAUL. 

CHARLES EUGENE FLANDRAU, son of Thomas Hunt and Elizabeth 
(Macomb) Flandrau, is a descendant of the Huguenots, his ancestors once 
residing in La Rochelle, F"rance. They were driven out of that country about 
the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; came to America in com- 
pany with others ; purchased a large tract of land at a place which they called 
New Rochelle, in Westchester county. New York, and opened many fine farms. 
Thomas Hunt Flandrau, who was born at New Rochelle, and, when a young- 
man, moved westward as far as Oneida county, graduated irom Hamilton Col- 
lege, read law with Nathan Williams, of Utica, and subsequently practiced law 
with Colonel Aaron Burr in New York ciiy. Later in life he returned to Utica, 
and there died in 1855. 

The maternal grandfather of our subject was Alexander Macomb, a native of 
Belfast, Ireland, coming to this country about 1760. He was for many years a 
merchant in New York, and died in Georgetown, District of Columbia, in his 
eighty-fifth year. One of his sons was General Alexander Macomb, who was 
commander-in-chief of the United States army immediately preceding General 
Scott. 

$9 



522 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

The subject ot" tliis sketch was born in New York city, on the 15th of July, 
1828; was educated in private schools in Cieorgetown and Washington, District 
of Columbia, and at thirteen years of age applied for a midshipman's warrant in 
the United States navy. He had sufficient influence to secure the appointment, 
but was one year too young. At that age he seemed to have an unconquerable 
desire to f^o to sea, and shipped before the mast in the United States revenue 
cutter Forward ; was aboard her one year, and then shipped on the revenue 
cutter V^an Buren, where he remained another year. He then made several 
coastino- voyages on merchantmen, spending in all about three years on the sea ; 
attended school a short time in Georgetown ; became restive and went to New 
York to seek his fortune, and was there about three years, learning and working 
at the trade of mahogany sawing. When about nineteen he went to Whites- 
boro, Oneida county; there read law and attended to other studies in his father's 
office, and on the jlh of January, 1851, was admitted to practice, going into part- 
nership with his father. 

Two years later, in November, 1853, in company with Horace R. Bigelow, 
Mr. Flandrau came to Saint Paul, and very soon the "shingle" of Bigelow and 
Flandrau was hung out on Third street, about where Dawson's block now stands. 
The following winter Mr. Flandrau was employed by a company ot men to go uiJ 
the Minnesota river and explore the country, with reference to the purchasing by 
them of a claim at the [ioint then known as Rock Bend, now Saint Peter. After 
makino- the required explorations he decided to remain there himself, and went 
first to Traverse des Sioux, the only settlement near there, antl which was com- 
posed of a few Indian traders, their attaches, and a number of missionaries. 
Nicollet county was new then, and he and a friend of his, with whom he officed 
that winter, amused themselves in shooting wohes out of the back window of 
the oflice, the animals being attracted l)y a dead pony which they placed at a con- 
venient distance. The\' shot a large number, and received seventy-five cents of 
the traders for each pelt. In June, 1854, the tirst house was built in Saint Peter, 
and Mr. Flandrau continued to reside there, practicing law, for several years. 

In March, 1854, Governor Gorman appointed him a notary public; in Octo- 
ber of the same year he became deputy clerk of the district court, and a little 
later was elected district attorney for the county. In 1855 he was sent to the 
territorial council or senate ; served one session, and resigned on account ol other 
duties. 



D-0 



On the 1 6th of August, 1856, President Pierce appointed Mr. Flandrau United 
States agent for the Sioux of the Mississippi, and after serving one year he re- 
signed. In 1857 he was a member of the constitutional convention, serving in 
the democratic wing of that body, presided over by General Sibley. In fuly of 
that }ear he was appointed, by President Buchanan, associate justice of the 
supreme court of the Territory of Minnesota, and filled that office until the ter- 
ritorial government was superseded by the state. In the interim (on the 13th of 
October, 1857) he was elected to the same office in the state for a term of seven 
years, he resigning on the ist of June, 1864. During this time, in October, 1858, 
he was appointed, b)' Governor Sibley, judge-advocate-general of the state, hold- 
ing that position during that administration. 

In August, 1862, on the outbreak of the .Sioux, judge Flandrau was chosen 
captain of a company of volunteers; went to New Ulm, and there mustered in, 
in all, nearly three luindred men, and he had command of them, defeating the 
Sioux in two spirited attacks on the town, and holding that position till they 
evacuated New Ulm. After these forces were disbanded he recruited a much 
larger force, and occupied stations extending from New Ulm to the Iowa line, 
with advanced posts on the Cottonwood river and at Clam lake. On the 29th 
of August Governor Ramsey sent him a roving commission, giving him power to 
take such measures as he deemed best tor the defense of the frontier. A few 
days later (on the 3d of September) the governor sent him a colonel's commis- 
sion, together with a letter from General Pope, of the United States army, dated 
about the same time. On the 25th of September Colonel Flandrau turned his 
command over to Colonel Montgomery, of the 25th Wisconsin, and was relieved 
from duty. 

In 1864 Judge Flandrau went to the Territory of Nevada, spending a year in 
Carson City, and a winter in Kentucky. In the spring of 1856 he went to Saint 
Louis, and practiced his profession a short time in company with Colonel Rich- 
ard Musser. 

In the spring of 1867 Judge Flandrau returned to Minnesota and opened an 
office with Judge Isaac Atwater, in Minneapolis, and in March of that year was 
elected city attorney, holding the office one term. He was chosen president of 
the first board of trade ever organized in that city, and represented it in the 
great commercial convention held in Saint Louis in 1868 to advance the improve- 
ment of the Mississippi river. 



524 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In 1870 the Judge removed to Saint Paul, and is in the law practice with 
Bioelow and Clark, the firm being Bigelow, Flandrau and Clark. Judge Flan- 
drau has been a life-long democrat, and as such was nominated for the position 
of crovernor of Minnesota in 1867 ; in 1869 he was the nominee of the democracy 
for the position of chief-justice of the state. The ixilitics of the state being over- 
whelmingly republican, he was not elected. 

In 1868 he was chairman of the state central committee, and as such attended 
the national con\ention which nominated Horatio Seymour. 

He was first married on the 14th of August, 1859, to Miss Isabella Dinsmore, 
of Kentucky. She died in 1866, leaving two daughters, Martha Macomb and 
.Sarah Gibson. His present wife was Mrs. Rebecca B. Riddle, daughter of Judge 
William McClure,of Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania; married on the 2Sth of February, 
1874. Two boys, Charles E.and \\ illiam B. McClure, are the fruit of this second 
marriage. 



HON. ORVILLE D. FORD, 

MAZEPPA. 

OX PI of the pioneer settlers in Wabasha county, Minnesota, was Orville D. 
Ford, who with his father, Joseph P'ord, came to Mazeppa in the spring of 
1855, and both are yet living here. At that time there were no settlements in 
this part of the state nearer than the Mississippi river, though Zumbrota was 
started that summer. Orville was born in Lebanon, Madison county, New York, 
on the 26th of August, 1831, his mother being OHve Lindsay Ford. The Fords 
were a Connecticut family, moving thence into the State of New York. Joseph 
Ford was in early life a clothier by trade, and later a farmer, rearing the subject 
of this sketch in agricultural pursuits. He received a common and select-school 
education ; commenced teaching at eighteen years of age, and followed it five 
winters, doing a good deal of studying at the same time. 

When he started for Minnesota, early in the year 1855, he had no idea where 
he should locate. He had heard of Faribault among the towns, and reaching 
Reed's Landing by steamboat, at the foot of Lake Pepin, in the month t)f April, 
and fimling the lakc' still frozen and navigation obstructed, he and his father took 
an Lulian trail at Reed's Landing and started westward up the valley of the Zum- 
bro, intending to go to Faribault. Reaching the spot where Mazeppa now stands. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 525 

and being pleased with the site, and especially its waterfall, they concluded to 
remain here. They made a claim of four hundred and eighty acres for a town 
site, preempted one hundred and sixty acres more, built a log house, and com- 
menced improving the land, farming having since that date been the leadino- 
occupation of our subject. He has done a liberal work in developino- the agri- 
cultural wealth of the Zumbro valley. 

The winter of 1861 and 1862 Mr. Ford spent at the capitol of the state, rep- 
resenting Wabaslia county in the lower branch of the legislature. 

In February, 1864, he went into the army as first lieutenant of company G, 
1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery, which did garrison duty at Chattanooo-a, Tennes- 
see, and was mustered out in October of the same year. 

In 1865 Mr. Ford was elected registrar of deeds for Wabasha county, and 
served in that position five years, making a faithful officer. 

He is a stockholder in the Mazeppa Mills, which were built in 1875 'ind 
started the February following, — mills costing sixty thousand dollars, and con- 
taining nine run of burrs, with a capacity for one thousand bushels of wheat per 
day. The other members of the company are L. F. Hubbard and \V. P. Brown, 
of Red Wing, and W. S. Wells, of Forest Mills. The flour is shipped over the 
Minnesota Midland (narrow-gauge) railroad, which was opened from Wabasha 
to Mazeppa in May, 1878, and which enables this company to compete with other 
millers in reaching a market. 

In politics, Mr. Ford has always been a republican, and takes a deep interest 
in his party. He is a chapter Mason. 

The wife of Mr. Ford was Miss Orrill A. Day, of Lebanon, New York ; chosen 
in September, 1852. They have two children: Edwin L., who is a merchant in 
Mazeppa, and Addie M.,who is pursuing her education at Red Wing. 



ABNER DWELLE, 

LAKE CITT. 

ONE of the earliest settlers in the picturesque valley of Lake Pepin is the 
subject of this brief sketch, who located on the present site of Lake City 
while the surrounding country was yet inhabited by Indians. He is a native of 
Greenwich, Washington county. New York, and was born on the 2d of January, 



526 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTION AkV. 

i8os. His parents were Abner and IMariam (Martin) Dvvelle, members of the 
ap^ricLiltural class. He comes of patriotic proorenitors, as both his father, who 
was a native of Massachusetts, and grandfather fought for American independ- 
ence in the continental army. Mr. Dwelle had six brothers and three sisters : 
.Sanuicl, Jedediah, Moses, Alphonso, Nelson, Mariam ; Betsy, .'Mmia, Lydia. 

Abner rccei\'ed a common-school education in his earl)' youth, and when 
ei^diteen years old was apprenticed for three years to learn tlu! clothier trade. 
His parents Ijcing in moderate circumstanci-s, and well knowing he would be 
dependent on his own resources tor support, he faithlully devoted the recpiisite 
time to learn the trade of manufacturing cloth ; afterward spent a year in his 
native town working at his trade; then went to Onondaga county, where he 
s]jent about ten years in the same business. 

In 1837 Mr. Dwelle became ambitious to try his fortune in the far west, to whose 
broad fields so many young men were hastening from their eastern homes. After 
prosi)ecting awhile he decided to make his home on a Michigan farm, and, buy- 
ing some- land, he engaged in tilling the soil, a pursuit which he followed there 
until 1S54; in this year he removed to Minnesota, where he secured a three- 
(luarter section of half-breed reservation, in what is now Wabasha county. Here 
he resuincil his occuijation of farming, and, with his sons, has successfully carried 
it on ever since. At that early day the country was wild and the Indians were 
plenty. With the latter Mr. Dwelle never had any trouble, and has often seen 
three or four hundred of them encamped in front of his door over night. Part ot 
the present site of Lake City was laid out on his land, and with others he laid 
out the town. He has lived to see the streets marked out on land which he re- 
claimed from the savages, lined with elegant dwellings, and become a part ot a 
thriving city noted for its handsome appearance and the wealth ot its citizens; 
and it is with pardonable pride that, in his old age, while enjoying the' fruits ot 
his industrious lite, that he beholds the |)rosperity and improvement of the city 
which he helped to make and build up. 

In politics, Mr. Dwelle was originally anti-slaver)', and since the tbrmation of 
the republican party he has been connected therewith. In religious views, he is 
a .Spiritualist. 

He was first married in Onondaga county, New York, on the 8th of Janu- 
ar\-, 1829, to Miss Electa C, daughter of Gad M. Lawrence. She died in Kala- 
mazoo county, Michigan, on the 13th of December, 1847, leaving eight chiUlren, 



THE UAITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 527 

five sons and three, daughters ; one of the latter, Electa, has since died. Of the 
others, Caroline, Elijah, G. Merrill, Henry, Thos. L. and Jane, all reside in Lake 
City. Albert A. is engaged in the livery business in Chicago, Illinois. Moses 
M., twin brother of G. Merrill, died at the age of two years. 

Mr. Dwelle was married again in South Bend, Indiana, on the 17th of Febru- 
ary, 1849, "^o ^\\''s>- Zilpha Knapp, daughter of Seth Chase. 



JUDGE EDWIN S. JONES, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

EDWIN SMITH JONES, president of Hennepin County Savings Bank, 
was born on the 3d of June, 1S28, at Chaplain, Windham count)^ Connec- 
ticut. He is of English ancestry, and son of David and Percy (Russ) Jones. 
His father, who was a farmer, served as a soldier in the war of 181 2. Edwin S. 
received such education as could be afforded b\' the district schools in his native 
town, and afterward attended two terms at the Monson Academy, Massachusetts. 
On completing his academical studies he determined to follow the practice of the 
law for a profession, as offering the best opportunities for a successful career, and 
in pursuance of this object he began the study of law in the office of the Hon. 
J. H. Carpenter, at Willimette, Connecticut. 

In 1854 Mr. Jones came to the conclusion that a young man just starting in 
Hie should not remain in the eastern states when so many broad attractive fields 
of the west were waiting to reward the energy and industry of all those not 
afraid to work, and he decided to seek his home and fortune in Minnesota. Find- 
ing Minneapolis a desirable place to locate, he entered the law office of Hon. 
Isaac Atwater to complete his reading. Being admitted to the bar in 1855, he 
continued in practice with Mr. Atwater until 1857, and afterward alone. In 1858 
Mr. Jones was elected probate judge, and continued in that position until 1861. 

In 1863 he entered the Union army, and was commissioned captain and C. S. 
in the Department of the Gulf, an ofifice which he retained to 1866, when he 
returned to Minneapolis and resumed the practice of his profession. Judge Jones 
was chairman of the board of supervisors during the years of 1866-67. He con- 
tinued his practice of law until 1S70, when he accepted the position which he now 
holds, as president of the bank. In 1873-74 he was a member of the city council. 



52<S THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTJONARY. 

Politically, [udge Jones has been a republican since the formation of that 
party, and is still a believer in its principles. He has been connected with the 
Masonic fraternity since i86o; is a member of the Plymouth Church in this citv, 
as is also his wife. 

He was married in September, 1853, in his nati\e town, to .Miss Harriet M., 
daughter of Whitman and Harriet James, and lost his wife by death just twelve 
years later. He was married again in September, 1866, at Minneapolis, to Miss 
Abigail J.James, sister of his first wife; she died in April, 1872. In May, 1877, 
at Goffstown, New Hampshire, Mr. Jones was wedded to Miss Susan C, daughter 
of Charles and Susan C. Stinson. He has children living, as follows : Edwin S., 
junior, born on the 20th of July, 1856; Ellen, born on the ist of September, 1858; 
David P., born on the 5th of July, i860; and William O., born on the 15th of 
February, 1870. Edwin S. graduated from Amherst College, Massachusetts, and 
Ellen from Wells College, Aurora City, New York, in 1878. 

Judge Jones is counted among the best business-men of Minneapolis, a city 
noted for the energetic character of its citizens. Straightforwartl and honest in 
all his transactions, he displays great business cpialifications in his present re- 
sponsible position. In practice, on the bench, and as president of the bank, Judge 
Jones posses.scs the; confidence and esteem of the people, and is a good type of 
that class of men who make the future of a city assured and prosperous. 



STEPHEN GARDNER, 

IIASTINdS. 

THE subject of this sketch is a native of Massachusetts, and was born at Bol- 
ton, on the 7th of December, 1806. His father. General .Stephen P. Gard- 
ner, was born in Sherburne, in the same state, in 1770, and moved from there 
with his family to Bolton, where he carried on an extensive biisiness in merchan- 
dising and farming. He was a man ot wealth and influence, and was a member 
of the legislature for several successive years. He was the lather of eleven 
children, nine of whom are still living. Stephen, being the eldest son, was care- 
fully educated, and titted to enter Harvard College at the age of twenty-one 
years, but he seems to have chosen a different career than that originally blocked 
out, and the programme of a collegiate course was never carried out. From an 





^^•-^ 



A i' I-j^jSB ffe.ll 4-.Sen^j3Saj-cUrStir-ir 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 531 

early age he was disposed to mark out an independent course for himself, so 
when he became of age he determined to make the " West " the field of his life's 
battles. Leaving home in December, 1827, he spent the following winter in New 
England, and in April, 1828, turned his footsteps toward Pittsburgh, Pennsylva- 
nia. Descending the Alleghany river in a skiff from Olean Point, he found em- 
ployment in the salt works at Pittsburgh, where he remained during the following- 
season ; in 1829 pushed on farther west, accompanying a flat-boat trading expedi- 
tion down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. In consequence of 
his great exposure to the inclemency of the weather and the malarial districts 
along the Mississippi through which he passed on this trip, Mr. Gardner became 
subject to chills and fever, and unfitted for any kind of business. He therefore 
concluded to retrace his steps to a more northern latitude, in order to regain his 
health. In pursuance of this object he passed up the Mississippi on a steamer to 
.Saint Louis. On reaching this point he was so ill that he was conveyed to the 
"Sisters of Charity" hospital, where he was kindly nursed for several weeks, 
until he became convalescent. During the winter of 1830-31 he trapped and 
hunted on the American Bottoms between Cahokia and Kaskaskia, Illinois; this 
was a rugged winter's work, the snow being very deep, but game was plenty, such 
as deer, wild turkeys, rabbits, muskrats, etc.; in the spring of 1831 volunteered in 
the United States service for forty-one days, and served as a private under Gen- 
eral Gaines during the Black Hawk war. In 1832 he supplied steamboats with 
wood, employing a large force of workmen. It was during this year that Mr. 
Gardner, livine in a log shantv and working hard, laid the foundation of the 

'00- *-5 

large property which he now owns. 

We next find him in Columbia, Illinois, engaged in the mercantile business. 
Being a man of great energy and determination of purpose, success smiled upon 
him in various ways, — his commercial enterprise grew and prospered; was ap- 
pointed postmaster by President Jackson and held the office for ten years ; became 
engaged in the milling business, running both saw and grist mills, first by ox 
power, and afterward by steam. Being upright, honest and high-minded in his 
business relations, Mr. Gardner met with gratifying success in all these ventures, 
but in all his prosperity he never forgot his duty to his fellow-men and his coun- 
try. He has ever been noted as a man possessed of great public spirit, liberal to 
a fault, and justly held in high esteem for his untarnished reputation and his 

many excellent qualities. During the southern rebellion, being too old lor active 
60 



532 THE UNITED STATES BJOGRAPIUCAL DICTIONARY. 

service, he showed his patriotism by furnishing the money to fit a regiment for 
the battle-field. 

The period of Mr. Gardner's operations in Columbia covered about twenty 
years, and during this time his mills were twice burned and twice rebuilt. In 
1864 he removed to Hastings, Minnesota, where he purchased the important mill 
site at Vermillion Falls, including about one hundred acres of land in and around 
the city. In the same year he erected a large stone mill — one of the hnest in the 
state, — and uiilil lately has been engaged in manutacturing the celebrated Ver- 
million (lour; and his books show that his Hour has commanded a higher price in 
the market than any other brand made in the state. The mill has an eight run 
of stone, and turns out two hundred barrels a day, in addition to his immense 
custom work. In 1873 he built an eight-run flouring-mill at Cannon Falls, Good- 
hue county, Minnesota. In addition to his great milling interests, he is also 
largely interested in banking, and is president ot the First National Bank of 
Hastings, the Merchants' National of Minneapolis, and the First National of 
Cannon Falls, in all of which he is a large stockholder. 

He was first married in 1848, to Miss Agnes Cleghorn, of New York, by 
whom he had one son, Lyman .Shaw; both wife and child died of cholera in 
1849. '" 1850 he was married to Miss Louise .S. Ingalls, of Griffin, Georgia, by 
whom he has si.\ children living, having lost one, aged twenty-one months, a 
daughter, named Fannie Gray. Achsah, the eldest daughter, is the wife of Charles 
Espenschied, of .Saint Louis, Missouri, who is at present the proprietor of the 
Cannon Falls Mill; .A.bby, the second daughter, was married on the 27th of 
October, 1876, to Samuel W. Mairs, of New Jersey; Stephen P., the eldest son, 
was married to Miss Julia Brewster, of Chicago, Illinois, in June, 1877; he and 
his brother-in-law, Mr. Mairs, are the present proprietors of Vermillion Mills; 
Clara Louise, the iourth daughter, is a young artist, now traveling in Europe and 
the Holy Land, having completed her education at the celebrated school of Miss 
Putnam, in Boston, Massachusetts; George and Fred are attending the Mount 
Pleasant Military School, at -Sing Sing, New York, where they will remain to 
finish their education. 

Mr. Gardner is eminently a self-made man, having accumulated a very large 
property through his untiring personal efforts. Though having attained more 
than man's allotted three-score and ten years, he has been able until quite recent- 
ly to attend to active business, and still gives to much of it personal attention ; 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



533 



but his mind contains something besides business learning, tact and judgment, 
for lie is well read in the English classics and the current literature of the day, 
being able to repeat from memory page after page of the grandest speeches of 
eminent men, and also whole volumes ot poetry and song. 



FRANKLIN BEEBE, 

MINNEAPOL IS. 

THE subject of this sketch was born in Lincklaen, Chenango county. New 
York, on the 8th of October, 1825. His father was Latham, son of Jabez 
Beebe. The Beebes in this country are descendants of a Welsh family that 
settled in New England over two hundred years ago, and from which have 
branched out families found in nearly all the states in the Union. Some of the 
descendants of this family fought in the continental army during the war for 
American independence. The maiden name ot the mother of our subject was 
Martha Lewis; both parents were from Connecticut previous to their marriage, 
and settled in Chenango county about the year 1808. Latham Beebe was by 
trade a blacksmith, but abandoned that occupation and engaged in farming. 

Franklin spent his early youth in working on the (arm during the summer 
months and attendino- the district school in winter. Leavino- the common schools 
and farming while yet in his teens, he spent about one year at Oxford Academy, 
and went from there to De Ruyter Academy, Madison county, New York, where 
he remained two years. After leaving the latter academy Mr. Beebe taught 
school two seasons, and in 1847 commenced the study of law in the office of 
Alanson Coates, at Truxton, New York; finished his legal studies with John 
Waite, of Norwich, in the same state, and was admitted to the bar at Coopers- 
town in 1850. Forming a law-partnership with his former tutor, Mr. Waite, he 
began the practice of his profession at Norwich, where he remained until 1855. 

Determining to make a change in favor of a newer country, he set out upon a 
prospecting trip through the western states, finally settling at Minneapolis, Min- 
nesota, on the 1st of October, 1856. Here he remained in practice until 1875, 
when he removed to Oakland, California, where he spent two years, engaged in 
his profession ; returned to Minneapolis and has practiced here ever since. Mr. 
Beebe was elected probate judge of Hennepin county, and by repeated elections 



534 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



Inlil the office from the ist of January. 1870, to the ist of October, 1875, when 
he resigned to go to California. 

As a lawyer, Judge Beebe holds a high position at the Hennepin county bar, 
being well-read in legal lore, and thoroughly devoted to his profession. 

He is a member of the democratic party, but he is not a partisan to any great 
extent, taking but very little active interest in matters political ; has served in the 
city council ; belongs to the Masonic Irateniit)-, being a member of both chapter 
and commandery. In religion, is a believer in the Episcopal form of worship, and 
is a member ot that church. 

Judge Beebe was first married in April, 185S, in Norwich, New York, to Miss 
Lavinia, daughter of Dr. James Thompson, of that place; she died in January, 
1868, leaving two daughters. He was married again, at North Yarmouth, Maine, 
in August, 1870, to Miss Dora H., daughter of Daniel G. Tompson, of that place. 
By the latter union he had two children, only one of whom, Dan G., survives, the 
other, a daughter, having died in California. 



RIGHT-REV. RUPERT SEIDENBUSH, 

SA/iVT C/J)iD. 

RUPERT SEIDENBUSH, bishop and vicar-apostolic of northern Minne- 
sota, is a native of Munich, Bavaria, a son of Charles Seidenbush, many 
years a government official, and Ann Hultler, also a Bavarian, and was born on 
the 13th of October, 1830. He spent his younger years in obtaining a classical 
and philosophical education; in the autumn of 1850 came to the United States; 
entered immediately ujion the study of theology at -Saint Vincent, Westmoreland 
countw Penns\'Ivania, and was tlierc ordained jiriest, on the 22d ot June, 1853. 
He officiated there for two years ; the same length of time at Saint Mary's, Elk 
county, same state ; five years at Newark, New Jersey ; one year at ButU-r, Penn- 
sylvania, and in lune. 1863, returned to Saint Vincent and served four years as 
prior of Saint Ikmedict. In 1867 he became abbot of Saint John's College, 
Stearns county, Minnesota, twelve miles northwest of Saint Cloud, and in 1875 
became bishop and vicar-apostolic oi northern Minnesota, which position he now 
holds, with residence at Saint Cloud. His diocese embraces all northern Minne- 
sota to the British dominions, ami northeastern Dakota as far west as the Mis- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 535 

souri river. It is an immense field for one man to supervise, and the Bishop 
travels about four thousand miles annually. Settlements are multiplying rapidly, 
the country is filling up from year to year, and Catholic churches are growing in 
number and size with western speed. 

The Bishop is a democrat, but avoids mixing in politics, and attends very 
faithfully to his clerical duties. 

He has a florid complexion and grayish-blue eyes, is five feet eight inches in 
heio-ht, and weighs probabl)- two hundred and fifty pounds. He has an abun- 
dance of bon-hoinmc, and is a rich entertainer in social circles. The Bishop has 
a large brick house, standing in a full square on the northern outskirts of the city, 
with primeval oaks in the inclosure and comfort within-doors. 



OZIAS WILCOX, 

I'LMNVIEW. 

THE subject of this sketch was born in Crown Point, New York, on the 30th 
of March, 1S24. His father was Asa Wilcox, a harness-maker in Crown 
Point. His mother's maiden naiue was .Sybil Bliss. 

The educational advantages enjoyed by Ozias were limited to a short time at 
the district school. He was the fifth of a family of seven boys, and, his father 
being in moderate circumstances, he dutifully gave all the help he could in sup- 
porting a large family. When he was about nine years of age the family moved 
to Perry, Lake county, Ohio, and settled on a farm. There Ozias remained 
engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1844, when he adopted a sailor's life on the 
lakes during the summers, and school-teaching during the winters, until the fall 
of 1852, when he went to California, going by the way of the Isthmus. Remain- 
ing there two years, he returned to Perry in the autumn of 1854, and, in company 
with one of his brothers, engaged in the forwarding commission business. In 
the spring of 1856, his health being quite poor, he determined to try the climate 
of the western states; traveled through Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and 
Minnesota, prospecting for a suitable place to settle ; was best pleased with Min- 
nesota, and decided to settle permanently at Centerville, now Plainview, Waba- 
sha county ; preempted one hundred and sixty acres of land, and bought forty 
acres more, on which part of the town of Plainview now stands. In the autumn 



536 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

ol" 1856 Mr. W'ilcux moved his family to their new western home, where he imme- 
diately engaged in mercantile business, also dealing somewhat in real estate, and 
erecting the second frame building in the place. 

Through his indomitable energy, business tact and uprightness, his business 
prospered and grew until he controlled the largest retail trade in the state. But 
this desired end was not won without many severe trials, perplexities and self- 
denials. No difficulty was so great as to discourage him from using his utmost 
power to overcome it. Perhaps this trait of his character will be better under- 
stood bv relating an incident which occurred during the early days of his lite in 
Minnesota. His business relations often called him to neighboring towns, from 
twenty-five to fifty miles distant, and being before the era of railroads, Mr. Wilcox 
made many of these trips on foot. On one memorable occasion, after transacting 
his business at Winona, he started for home, and when many miles on his way 
was overtaken by a severe snow-storm ; faster and more blinding fell the snow, 
until all trace of the homeward trail had completely vanished ; night came on, 
and what a night ! — all who remember it agree in saying it was the most fearfully 
cold and stormy night ever experienced in Minnesota. Bravely Mr. Wilcox 
plodded on through the chilling darkness and deepening snow, until he was 
forced to give up all hope of regaining his lost way, or of reaching a human habi- 
tation. Knowing it was certain death to falter, he paced off a short beat and 
resolutely set to work walking back and forth, determined to keep warmth in his 
veins if possible. As soon as the storm began to wane he saw, to his great relief, 
a light not far distant, to which he gladly made his way, and found shelter for 
the balance of that fearful night. Few men would have survived such a terrible 
situation, and nothing but his great, strong will kept his body in motion during 
that lonely watch. But it was a ruling characteristic of his life to let nothing 
discourage him as long as he could make a single effort of resistance. 

Mr. Wilcox became prominenll_\- itlcntihcd with all enterprises that tended to 
develop the resources of Plainview and vicinity, and in his death, which occurred 
on New Year's Day, 1876, the community lost one of its brightest and most highly- 
prized citizens, his family lost a devoted and loving husband and father, and the 
poor and needy lost a friend whose charity was universal and wide-spread. The 
immediate cause of his death was a trouble of the brain, which was doubtless 
caused by its being in constant use. He was never idle; an indomitable worker, 
he was always busy, — if not with his hands, then with his head. All his leisure 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 537 

time he emploj'ed in reading, from his boyhood up to the time of his death, and 
few indeed are as well read on so great a variety of subjects as was Mr. Wilcox. 
He was the happy possessor, in an eminent degree, of the faculty of remember- 
ing everything he read. No matter what the subject, he forgot nothing, and his 
decision on any matter in dispute was always accepted as final, and indeed he was 
often called by his friends a living cyclopedia of knowledge. He hated shams, 
and utterly despised hypocrisy and deception ; an intense lover of truth and up- 
rightness of character, his word was ever as good as his bond ; generous-hearted, 
of sound judgment and invincible courage, he fought life's battles successfully. 
Few men have passed through the various walks of life with less of ostentation, 
or more satisfactory results. 

His life was a grand success, and at every step reflected the grandeur, the honor and the dignity 
of labor. Through all the intermediate garden of hope and doubt, embarrassment and success, he 
finally gained the prize, and the golden wedge lay at his feet. His life was no speculation; it was a 
life of trial, — a stern and determined battle for desired results. The battle was long and severe, but 
he more than won — he conquered. In all his intercourse with the world he never violated the laws 
of truth, duty and manhood. While others professed with their lips he practiced in his daily life the 
most sacred requirements of the gospel. 

Though not taking much active interest in politics, Mr. VVilco.x was a member 
of the democratic party ; also of the Masonic fraternity. 

On the 15th of December, 1S54, in Perry, Ohio, he was married to Miss M. 
L. Stearns, who is a sister of judge Stearns, of Duluth, elsewhere sketched in 
this volume. She and five children, out of eight, survive him : Minnie E. is the 
wife of A. E. McMuUen, of Minneapolis ; the others, Helen J., Asa S., Casius C. 
and Frankie L., reside with thei-r mother in their elegant home recently built in 
the same city. 



JOSEPH P. KIRBY, 

HENDERSON. 

JOSEPH PATTERSON KIRBY, son of John and Mary (Manley) KIrby, 
J and born in Ireland on the i6th of August, 1838, came to this country before 
he was two years old, his pareats settling on a farm at Abington, Luzerne county, 
Pennsylvania. There the son lived until his nineteenth year, accjuainting himself 
with all kinds of farm labor, and receiving such an education as attendance at a 
district school would furnish, with one term at a select school. 



538 THE UNI'i ED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

In 1856 Mr. Kirby came to the Territory of Minnesota, commenced opening 

a farm at New Auburn, Sibley county, twenty-four miles northwest of Henderson, 
working it himself until the civil war commenced, making his home at Le Sueur, 
Le Sueur county, after 185S. In September, 1861, he enlisted as a private in 
company I, 3d Minnesota Infantry; was captured with his regiment at Murfrees- 
borough, Tennessee, on the 13th of July, 1862, and on being paroled came to 
Minnesota and fought the Sioux, being wounded b)- them at Wood Lake. In 
November of the same year he returned with his regiment to the south, was 
promoted to first lieutenant, company K, in 1864; received a slight wound at 
Fitzhue's Woods, Arkansas, and was mustered out with the regiment at Fort 
Snelling, in September, 1865, just four years after he had enlisted. 

Lieutenant Kirby returned to Le Sueur, five miles from Henderson, remov- 
ing to this place in 1874. He still carries on his farm at New Auburn, having 
one hundred and sixty acres, and half of it under improvement. Lieutenant 
Kirby has served as justice of the peace at sundry times; in 1874 was elected 
judge of probate for Sibley count)', and still holds that office. He attends faith- 
fully to his official duties, and stands well before the people. 

In politics, he acts with the republicans, and is quite influential, frequently 
attending district and state conventions as a delegate. He is a Master Mason, 
and has held different offices in the order. 

The wife of Judge Kirby was Miss Florence M. Myrick, of Le .Sueur, Minne- 
sota, their union taking place on the 4th of March. 1865. They had one child, 
Stepen Le Roy, losing it in infancy. 



HON. STEPHEN MH.LER, 

WORTHINGTON. 

STEPHEN MILLER, governor of Minnesota in 1S64 and 1865, is a native 
of Perry, once a part of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and was born on 
the 7th of January, 18 16, his parents being David and Rosanna Darkess Miller. 
His grandfather, Melchor Miller, came from Germany about 1785. 

Stephen was educated in the common schools of his native county; in youth 
learned the milling business; became a forwarding and commission merchant at 
Harrisburgh in 1837; in 1849 was elected pnjthonotary oi Dauphin county; was 




XlVEKilOR OF MINNESOTA 
1864&1S65 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 541 

reelected in 1852, and in 1855 was appointed by Governor Pollock flour inspector 
at Philadelphia, holding- that positi9n till 1858, when he removed to Minnesota, a 
confirmed invalid ; located at Saint Cloud and engaged in mercantile business, 
so continuing till the war broke out. 

In the spring of 1861 Mr. Miller enlisted as a private soldier; was appointed 
lieutenant-colonel of the ist Minnesota Infantry; served in that position in the 
army of the Potomac till September, 1862, when he was appointed to the com- 
mand of the 7th Minnesota Infantry, and rushed with his regiment to the frontier 
of Minnesota, where the .Sioux were slaying, indiscriminately, men, women and 
children. In December of that year he caused the execution of thirty-eight of 
the captured Indians, by hanging them at Mankato. 

In the autumn of 1863 Colonel Miller was made brigadier-general of volun- 
teers, and in the same autumn was elected governor. He was in the executive 
chair during the closing years of the rebellion, and in many ways showed his 
patriotic impulses and his zeal for the salvation of the country. 

President Grant, like President Lincoln, tendered him positions in the civil 
service, but since the war closed he has held no office, we believe, except that of 
a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in the session of 1873, repre- 
senting six counties in the southwestern part of the state; and he was also presi- 
dential elector at large in 1876, and messenger to bear the electoral vote to 
Washington. 

From June, ;87i, to September, 1878, Governor Miller resided at Windom, 
Cottonwood county, being employed as field agent of the Saint Paul and Sioux 
City Railroad Company ; still thus employed at Worthington. 

Governor Miller has long been an ardent republican, and in i860 was a delegate 
to the national convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln, and headed the electoral 
ticket of Minnesota in the autumn of that year. From 1853 to 1855 he edited 
the " Telegraph," a whig paper of much infiuence, published at Harrisburgh. 

In 1839 Miss Margaret Funk, of Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, was married 
to Governor Miller; they have had three sons and one daughter: Wesley F. was 
a lieutenant in the army, and fell bravely fighting at the battle of Gettysburgh, on 
the 2d of July, 1863 ; his second son, .Stephen C, was also in the army as commis- 
sary of subsistence, with rank of captain, — he is now a printer in Washington, 
District of Columbia, and Robert D. is a railroad conductor in Pennsylvania; the 

daughter died in infancy. 
61 



542 THF. UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Governor Miller is a practical and efficient business-man, gratefully remem- 
bered for his valuable services alike on the bloody fields of battle and in the 
gubernatorial chair. 



HON. REUBEN WELLS, 

PRESTO IV. 

Tl 1 AT branch of tlic Wells family from which Reuben Wells sprang is traced 
back to Thomas W^ells, who was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, 
in 1694. Not being the eldest son, and hence, according to English laws at that 
time, having no title to any part of his father's property, especially real estate, he 
concluded to seek his fortune in the new world. In 1712 he ran away with an 
empty pocket, and when he reached this country he sold his service to a Mr. 
Merrill, of Seybrook, Connecticut, to pay his passage money. When the sale for 
his passage was satisfied he married Mr. Merrill's daughter, Elizabeth, and they 
had three sons, Edward, Thomas and Joseph. Reuben Wells is the great-grand- 
son of Thomas Wells, junior, who was born in Seybrook in 1723 ; had nine sons 
and three daughters, his son Samuel being the grandfather of Reuben, and a 
" minute-man" during the revolution. Members of this family early spread into 
different jiarts of Connecticut, and into New York and other states, anil later 
generations are scattered all over the northern states. 

Nathan A.Wells, father of our subject, was an extensive hmiberman, and 
married Rhoda Sherman, a descendant of Fortunatus Sherman, a seafaring man, 
born in Connecticut in 1725, and dying in 1805. Mrs. Wells was a distant rela- 
tive of General Sherman. 

Reuben Wells was born in the town of Cambridge, Washington county. New 
York, on the 17th of November, 1802, antl moved with his parents to Luzerne, 
Warren county, same state, when he was seven years old. He received a com- 
mon-school etlucation and some private instruction in Latin ; aided his father 
more or less in the lumber business in youth ; became a merchant and lumber 
dealer; commenced reading law when somewhat advanced in years, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Caldwell, the .seat of justice of Warren county, New York, 
in 1856. The next ^ear Mr. Wells came to Minnesota, preempted a quarter- 
section of land in the southwestern part of Fillmore county, and in a few years 
made one of the best farms in the county. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 543 

In 1862 he was elected county attorney, and moved to Preston, the county 
seat, serving one term. He has been court commissioner since 1869. He is also 
pension agent, and does some business in his profession. He owns between 
three hundred and four hundred acres of land in Fillmore county, includino- his 
original farm, half of it under good improvement. 

Mr. Wells was a state senator in 1859 and i860, elected by the republicans. 
At an early day he was a whig, and was a member of the New York legislature 
in 1849 and 1855, voting both years for William H. Seward for United States 
senator. While in New York he was one of the judges of the county court a 
long time, and a justice of the peace from 1828 to 1857, when he left the state. 
He was made a Mason in 1825, and is now a Royal Arch. 

Mr. Wells has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church more than 
forty years, and has held the various lay offices connected with that denomina- 
tion, being district steward at this time. 

On the 1st of January, 1828, Miss Catharine Leavens, of Warren county. New 
York, was joined in wedlock with Mr. Wells, and they have two children living: 
Rhoda, the wife of .Silas Dayton, of Decorah, Iowa, and Henry R., an attorney- 
at-law and banker at Preston, a brief account ot his lite appearing in this volume. 



MAJOR MICHAEL COOK, 

FARIBAULT. 

AMONG the very early settlers in Faribault, and the heroic men who fell in 
^ the late civil war, was Michael Cook, who aided in building some of the 
first frame houses in this place, and who was honored with a seat in the territorial 
council and the state senate, — a self-educated man oi a noble type. He is a son 
of Richard Cook, a farmer by occupation, now living in Faribault, in his eighty- 
ninth year. Major Cook was born in Morris county, New Jersey, on the 17th of 
March, 1828; had a common-school education; learned the carpenter's trade in 
New York city, and worked there as a journeyman several years, attending a 
night school while an apprentice. He early formed the acquaintance of Horace 
Greeley, who encouraged him in his struggle for knowledge. 

Major Cook came to Faribault in 1855. He was in the state senate continu- 
ously from about 1858 to 1862, and took a prominent part in legislative work. 



544 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

He was a diligent worker, with very few words, and stood well in the legislative 
body. Honesty in liim was personified. 

In the summer of 1862 he raised a company for the loth Minnesota; was 
made captain of the company; was subsequently promoted to major of that 
regiment, and was killed in the battle of Nashville, Tennessee. The memory of 
very few deceased men who ever lived in Faribault is more warmly cherished 
than that of Major Cook. 



HENRY R. WELLS, 

PRESTON. 

HENRY ROGERS WELLS, the pedigree of whose family appears in 
the sketch of his father on preceding pages, was born at Luzerne, Warren 
county, New York, on the 23d of June, 1834. He received a very thorough aca- 
demic education at Glens Falls and Charlotteville, in his nati\c state, attend- 
ing school more or less each year till twenty, when he went into the law office of 
Abram Becker, of South Worcester, New York. After reading there two years 
he went to Glens Falls, and finished his legal studies with .Stephen Brown. 

In September, 1857, Mr. Wells came to Minnesota; two months later visited 
Waukon, Allamakee county, Iowa, while the district court was in session, and 
was there admitted to the bar. In May, 1858, he located at Chatfield, Fillmore 
county, Minnesota; there practiced till the autumn of 1861; the next spring went 
to Marysville, California, across thc! plains, and spent the winter then: ; then was 
connected for eighteen months with the Yellow jacket Mines, at Gold Hills, 
Nevada, being in the office of the comiiany, and still later was in the ta.x-coUect- 
or's office at Virginia City, returning to the east in May, 1865. 

On the 1 2th of the next October Mr. Wells opened a law office in Preston, 
and is still in practice here, having a large practice. His collecting business is 
probably second to that of no other lawyer in the county. He is prompt, per- 
fectly reliable, and widely known for his good qualities as a man and as a lawyer. 

In 1875 he commenced the banking business here, and in this line also is 
doing well. He is a ver)- efficient and reliabU- man. 

Mr. Wells was judge of probate for Fillmore county in 1S58 and 1859, and 
again in 1870 and 1871. With the exception of one year, he has been in the 
council of Preston since the \'illage was incorporated, and he is ver\' active in 
looking alter the interests of the jjlace. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 545 

In the spring of 1861 he aided in raising three companies of volunteers for 
the war, of which he was an enthusiastic supporter, but owing- to his business 
relations he could not engage in active service. 

In 1866 he was the democratic candidate for state senator, and in 1872 the 
candidate of the same party ior district judge, both strong republican districts, 
and was not elected. When a candidate ior district judge he ran two thousand 
votes ahead of his ticket. 

Mr. Wells is a sir knight in the Masonic order, has been deputy grand master 
of the state, and was elected to the position ol grand master in January, 1879. 
With the exception of two years, he has been master of the Preston Lodge since 
1869. 

Miss Mary E. McKenny, daughter of the late John H. McKenny, of Chat- 
field, Minnesota, became the wife of Mr. Wells on the 13th of June, 1866, and 
they have had four children, losing one of them. The three living are Reuben 
McKenny, Winnifred Mary and William Richard. 



WILLIAM H. ROBERTS, 

LANESBORO. 

ONE of the most thorough-going merchants and business-men in Fillmore 
county is William Henry Roberts, twenty-three years a resident of Minne- 
sota. He is a native of Chenango county. New York, a son of Barnabas and 
Mary (Johnson) Roberts, and was born on the 22d of March, 1830. He is of 
Scotch-Irish descent, the first settler of his branch of the Robert family locat- 
ing in Pennsylvania. Barnabas Roberts was a blacksmith, moving to Oxford, 
New York, when William was very young, and to Tioga county, Pennsylvania, 
when the son was eight years old. There the latter spent his early youth in a 
district school and in aiding his father; at seventeen became a clerk in a store at 
Wellsborough, the seat of justice of Tioga county ; remained there three years, 
then gave one year to study in the Wellsborough Academy, and subsequently 
clerked five years at Mainesburgh, in the same county, becoming thoroughly con- 
versant with the mercantile business in all its minutia:;. 

In 1855 the tide of western emigration was aiming largely toward Minnesota, 
and hither, in October of that year, Mr. Roberts bent his way, locating at Cari- 



546 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

mona, in llu; central \ym-\. of Fillmore county. There he opened a store, the first 
in that village, and traded for twelve years, being the leading and most successful 
merchant in that town. In iS68 Mr. Roberts removed to Lanesboro, still con- 
tinuing in trade, and latterly doing from forty-five to fifty thousand dollars a year. 
He went through the financial earth(]uake of 1857 unshaken, and is one of two 
or three merchants in Fillmore county, doing business here at that time, that have 
constantly stood erect. He does not seem to believe in letting one's business take 
care of itself; his has always had his ceaseless oversight, and he owes his brilliant 
success in part to his shrewdness and thorough knowledge of the l)usiness, and 
in part to his vigilance and untiring industry. 

Mr. Roberts was president of the village council of Lanesboro one year, but 
has shunned office all he could, giving his business precedence over everything 
else. He is public-spirited, and lends a helping and generous hand in all local 
improvements. He usually votes the democratic ticket; is a blue-lodge Mason, 
and has held most of the offices in the order, being senior warden at this time. 

On the 23d of December, 1853, Miss Jane E. Beers, of Green county, New 
York, became the wife of Mr. Roberts, and they have had six children, losing one 
of them. Minnesota, the eldest daughter, is the wife of James B. Emerson, of 
Chicago. The other children, — Henrietta, Carrie, John Henry and Lulu, are 
under age and none oi them are married. 

Besides his property in Lanesboro, consisting of stores, dwelling-houses, lots, 
etc., Mr. Roberts has three hundred and twenty acres of wild land in Redwood 
county, Minnesota, and is in independent circumstances. The merchants gen- 
erally of Lanesboro are doing well, antl stand on a tirm basis, — Mr. Roberts 
the firmest of all. 



F 



FREDERICK W. FRINK, 

FARUlMI.r. 

REDERICK WH.LARD FRIN K, who assisted in organizing Rice count^■, 
Minnesota, in 1856, and selected the site for the present court-house, and has 
been auditor of the county since March, 1863, is a native of Rutland county, 
Vermont, dating his birth June 24, 1828. His father is Cabin brink, a stone- 
mason by trade, and the maiden name of his mother was Lydia L. Avery. 
His paternal great-great-grandfather was from England, and his maternal great- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 547 

grandfather was a captain in the continental army. When Frederick was ten 
years old the family moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and one year later (1839) 
to Mineral Point, same state. There the family remained until September, 1841, 
when they removed to Sauk county, where Calvin Frink and two other men laid 
out the villaee of Prairie du Sac. There Frederick remained ten years, farmino- 
and lumbering, finishing his education, meanwhile, at the Beloit Seminary in 1846, 
paying some attention to the classics, as well as the mathematics and other prac- 
tical branches. 

In 185 I our subject went to Waterloo, Grant county, in the southwestern part 
of Wisconsin; was there engaged in lumbering ior three years, and in September, 
1854, settled in Rice county, preempting one hundred and sixty acres of land in 
Richland township. There Mr. Frink opened a farm, but, his health failing, he 
moved into Faribault in 1856. In October of that year he started the Rice 
county " Herald," which he sold out in a short time, and which is still published 
under the name of Faribault " Republican," a paper devoted for twenty-two years 
to the advocacy of the tenets of the republican party. 

About this time he purchased a fifth interest in the new town of Shieldsville, 
Rice county, named for General Shields, who was a resident of this county for 
two or three years. It proved to be a "paper" town, and with ten thousand 
other land speculators, in the "flush times" of 1856-57, Mr. Frink experienced a 
thorough " smash up." 

After he hacl made and lost his fortune in the .Shieldsville venture, he was a 
clerk three years for F'aribault merchants ; was two years of this time deputy 
county treasurer, and was elected county auditor in November, 1862. He is one 
of the most efficient and reliable business-men in the county, and very popular 
with the people. He was among the frontier-men when he broke land in Minne- 
sota, and he was a frontier-boy when living at Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. The 
first mail ever taken from Madison, westward to Prairie du Sac, was carried by 
him on horseback at the age of eleven years, a ride of more than fifty miles a 
day. All the road he had, much of the way, was a trail marked by " blazed trees," 
he aiding his father to do the "blazing." 

Mr. Frink was chairman of the first board of county commissioners (elected in 
1856), and resigned at the end of one year to become a millionaire at Shieldsville. 

In politics, Mr. Frink was originally a free-soiler, his candidates on the presi- 
dential ticket in 1852 being John P. Hale and George W. Julien. 



548 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

His wife was Miss Julia E. Beach, of Grant county, Wisconsin ; tlieir marriage 
took place on the 2 2d of September, 1852. They have one son, Edward Laman, 
aged twenty-five years. 



HON. CHARLES B. JORDAN, 

WADENA. 

THE parents of Charles Bradford Jordan, register of the United States land 
office at Fargo, Dakota Territory, were Thomas M. and Lovinia (Weeks) 
Jordan, both born in the United States, but living at Frcdcrickton. New f^runs- 
wick, when he was born, on the 26th of September, 182S. W hen he was three 
years old they moved to Lincoln, Maine, where the Jordans had lived for nearly 
a century, his great-grandfather joining in the struggle for freedom from the 
British yoke. 

Thomas M. Jordan was a house, carpenter, and the son, after receiving what 
education he could obtain at a district school, learned his father's trade, for eight 
years working at it about half the year and teaching a school the other half. 
Subsequently, before leaving Maine, he was a merchant at Lincoln a few years. 

In 1855 Mr. Jordan came to Minnesota, settled at Monticello, Wright county, 
and after merchandising a short time was elected register of deeds, and served 
in that position for six years; he was then appointed receiver of the L'nited 
States land office at Forest City, Meeker county, and when the outbreak of the 
Sioux occurred, commencing in that county in August, 1862, the office was moved 
to Minneapolis. Mr. Jordan held the office of receiver about three years, when, 
on being appointed deputy provost-marshal, he returned to Monticello; remained 
there in that office about two years, then removed to Greenleaf, Meeker county, 
and traded about five years, serving also most of this time as judge of probate 
for Meeker county. 

Ill 1872, soon after the Nortliern Pacific railroad was completed through 
Wadena county. Judge Jordan was appointed lantl agent of the railroad com- 
pany, and moved to the county seat. In 1874 he was a member of the legislature, 
and the following summer was appointed register of the land office at Fargo, his 
famih' still remaining at Wadena. 

judge Jordan has affiliated with the republican i)arty since its organization, 
twenty-four years ago; is a frequent attendant at political conventions, — county, 




-7- 




^ — ^-^.^ 




THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. . 551 

congressional and state.^and has been an inHuential member of his party since 
locating in Minnesota. He is a Sir Knight in the Masonic fraternity. 

The wife of Judge Jordan was Miss Caroline A. Pineo, of Topsfield, Wash- 
ington county, Maine; married in September, i852'. They have had live children 
and lost two of them. 



HON. ROBERT B. LANGDON, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

ROBERT BRUCE LANGDON, one of the most enterprising men in Min- 
neapolis, and an energetic railroad builder, is a native ot the "Green Moun- 
tain .State," and was born in New Haven, Addison county, on the 24th of Novem- 
ber, 1826. His parents were Seth and Laura (Squier) Langdon. His grandfather, 
.Seth Langdo'n, senior, and his great-grandfather, were both in the revolutionary 
war, the latter being a captain who aided in the capture of Burgoyne and his 
army. The father oi Robert was a farmer, and reared his son in a knowledge of 
hard work, the latter, however, receiving an academic education at Castleton, 
Hindsburgh, Bakersfield and Middebury, all in his native state. At twenty-one 
he started out for himself. He commenced railroadino- as foreman of a eano- of 
men on the Rutland and Burlington road, subsequently occupying the same posi- 
tion on the Cleveland and Pittsburgh road. A little later he was superintendent 
of construction of different railroads in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. In 1858 
he came to Saint Paul, and in connection with other parties built several miles of 
the Saint Paul and Pacific road; in i860 went to the south antl built portions of 
railroads in Tennessee and Mississippi, being in the latter state when it seceded, 
and came to the north in June, 1S61. That year he found employment as fuel 
agent for the Chicago, Alton and Saint Louis Railroad Company. 

In 1863 Mr. Langdon 1-eturned to Minnesota, making his home nearly three 
years at Mendota, near Saint Paul, and resuming the business of railroad build- 
ing, commencing on the Milwaukee and Saint Paul road, then known as the 
Minnesota Central. Some years ago he built the Hastings and Dakota road 
from Fairfield to Glencoe, and finished it to Montevideo in the autumn of 1878. 
He also built, at sundry times, most of the Iowa division of the Chicago, Mil- 
waukee and .Saint Paul road from Colmar to the center of Sioux county, Iowa, 
completing it to the latter place as late as November, 1878. In connection with 



^;2 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

otlier parties he has hiiik from ci^Iit hundred to one thousand miles of railroad 
in different parts of the countr\-. 

Since 1866 the home of Mr. Langdon has been at Minneapolis, where the 
impress of his energizing hand was felt years ago. In 1S66-67 he built the great 
water-power canal for the Minneapolis Mill Compan\-. on which stand sixteen 
llouring-mills and other manutactories ; he put up the lirsl Washburn mill, the 
birst National Bank building, and various other structures ot a first-class charac- 
ter ill this beautiful city. 

Mr. Langdon was a state senator for si.x consecutive years, ending with 1878; 
was chairman of the committee on state prison during three or four sessions, and 
of the committee on immigration this last session. He refusetl to be renominated 
for a fourth term. 

He is vice-president ol the Minneapolis and Saint Louis railrt)ad, ot which he 
was one of the prominent managers in its construction, and is one ot the leading 
capitalists ot the city. 

He was educated in the whig school of politics ; became a repuljlican in 1861, 
and llrmly adheres to its tenets. Ht: was a delegate to the national republican 
conxention in 1876, and was the only delegate from Minne'sota who voted tor 
Rutlu-rtnrd 1!. Hayes. 

Mr. Langdon was married in February, 1858, to Miss Sarah Smith, daughter 
of Dr. IL A. Smith, of New Haven, Vermont, and of five children, tlu! fruit of this 
union, only thrc'e are living. 



JOHN F. WILLIAMS, 

.V.I/.\/- /'ACL. 

JOHN FLETCHER WTLLL^MS. secretary of the Minnesota Historical 
J Societ)-, is a descc-ndant, in the seventh generation, of John Williams, who 
emigratetl from ( "damorganshire, Wales, about the year 1644. He was born in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 25th of .September. iS:;4. He attended Woodward Col- 
lege in that city, antl suljsequentlv the Ohio Wesleyan LIniversity, at Delaware, 
from which institution he graduated in the scientific department in 1852. In 1855 
he removed to Minnesota and settletl in Saint I'aul. wln-re he has since resided. 
Soon alter coming here he engaged in journalism; his tu^sl work, as a cit)' re- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAJ'H ICAI. DICTIONARY. 553 

porter, being done for the " Daily Minnesotian," and after the suspension of that 
paper in 1861 he was employed at various times on the " Daily Pioneer," " Daily 
Press" and " Daily Dispatch." He continued in the profession of journalist with 
much success for twelve years, becoming wicfely acquainted, through that means, 
with the people of the state and with the details ot its history as related by the 
earlier settlers. To the latter he gave much attention, and wrote and published 
many biograi)hical and historical sketches concerning the pioneer days ot Min- 
nesota. 

In January, 1S67, Mr. Williams was elected secretary and libr;irian (jf the 
Minnesota Historical Society, a position with which his historical and antiqua- 
rian tastes were directly in harmony. What leisure time he could spare from a 
laborious profession he devoted zealously to building up that society, which at 
that time was almost without means, with a small active membership, and a 
library ot little size and value stowed away in a mere closet, rented for the pur- 
pose on Third street. The most gratitying success rewarded his exertions. In 
a tew months the society had trebled its librar)% greatl)- increased its membership, 
and was in possession of commodious apartments and an ample income. As a 
consequence, the duties ot secretary and librarian had so increased that he was 
compelled, in 1869, to withdraw from journalism altogether, and devote his entire 
time to the service of the society, in which he has been busily engaged ever since. 
He makes a very efficient officer. 

In addition to his regular duties as above noted, and editing the published 
collections of the society, Mr. Williams has written and published a " History of 
the City ot Saint Paul and County ot Ramsey," in the preparation of which he 
expended much labor and without any design of profit. He has also written a 
number ot papers tor the collections of the society, biograpliical sketches of old 
settlers and public men, and has collected a large mass of manuscript and printed 
material tor the history of the state and its people, which will be of the greatest 
value in the future. Several of the memoirs in this volume were prepared from 
those gatherings. In view ot his labors in perpetuating the memory of the pio- 
neers of the state, the Old Settlers' Association conferred upon him the honorar\' 
appointment of corresponding secretary (although not eligible to membership 
in that body); and he has also been secretary of the Ramsey County Pioneer 
Association since its organization, as well as corresponding secretary of the Min- 
nesota Editorial Association. The historical societies of Pennsylvania, Virginia, 



554 "^HF. UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Rhode Island, Maine, Buffalo, Montana, and the Northeastern Historic Genea- 
logical Society have also conferred on him the diploma of corresponding mem- 
bership. He is richly deserving of all the honors conferred upon him. 

Mr. Williams has been since 1856 one of the active Odd-Fellows of Minne- 
sota, having held, at one time or another, every prominent office in the grand 
lodge and grand encampment of the state, and is at present grand scribe of the 
latter. In. 1X71 he was appointed by President (irant a member ot the I'nitcd 
States centennial commission, from this state, and ser\cd as such to the close ot 
the International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. 



HON. JOSEPH CAPSER, 

SAVK CENT Eli. 

THE first general stock of goods in Sauk Center was brought hither by 
Joseph Capser, for the last fifteen years a prominent merchant here. He is 
a native of Bavaria, Germany, where he was born, on the 5th of March, 1833. 
His father, Casper Capser, in his younger years was a bugler in the army oi Na- 
poleon Bonajjarte (a pet of that great captain), and subseqiiently a music teacher, 
and a licensed hunter in the forests of Bavaria. The mother of Joseph was 
[uliana Overmeyer. He received a classical education before leaving the old 
world. In May, 1846, came with the family to the United States, and settled at 
Saint Mary's, Elk county, Pennsylvania, where his father was engaged in farming, 
surveying and dealing in real estate, the son assisting in tilling the soil. About 
nine )ears later the faiiiil)- removed to Westmoreland county, young Capser mean- 
time going into the pineries of Pennsyb ania, and continuing in the lumber busi- 
ness about ten years. 

In 1857 Mr. Capser came to the " North Star .State," farmed near Saint Joseph 
till the spring of 1864, and then opened a store at Sauk Center, dealing in general 
merchandise here ever since that date. He has also at times done somethfng at 
money loaning, and is numbered among the prudent and successful business-men 
of the place. He -carries a full and fine assortment of goods, has an extensive 
accjuainlanc(;, and is doing an extensive business. 

Mr. Capser represented .Stearns county in the state senate in 1875 and 1876. 
Beinof a democrat, he was chairman of m; committee, but was on half-a-dozen 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 555 

committees (hospital for the insane, institution for the deaf and dumb and the 
bHnd, state prison, etc.). and was an earnest worker tor the general interests of 
the commonwealth. He was in the great fight on the senatorial question in 1875. 
when [udge McMillan was finally elected to the United States senate, and was 
one ot the leaders on the democratic side. At the expiration ot his senatorial 
term he was renominated, but declined to run. He was a {^residential elector in 
1876, and for several years a member ot the democratic state central committee. 

Mr. Cajiser was reared in the Catholic church. He is a man ot unblemished 
character, and holds a prominent place in the community. He has a liberal share 
of public spirit. 

His wife was Mar\- Ann ( Le_\'), a native ol Wisconsin. They were joined in 
marriage on the 3d of May, 1864, and have six children, — Henry C, Josephine 
)., Sophronia C, Albert J., Edward A. and George W. The first-mentioned son 
is a college student, and is noted tor his oratorical powers. On the 4th of July, 
1876, when only eleven years old, he spoke, in company with .Senator Westphal, 
before twenty-two lodges of grangers, there being two thousand people present, 
and he astonished everybody with his displays of rhetorical skill. All of Mr. 
Capser's children but the youngest are at school, he taking great pains to fit 
them for spheres of usefulness as well as influence. 



JOHN D. FORD, M.D., 

WINONA. 

JOHN D. FORD, who died in Winona on the 29th of October, 1867, was the 
author of the normal-school system of Minnesota, and one ot the best friends 
of education the state ever had. He was a native ot Cornish, New Hampshire, 
and was born on the 18th of April, 1816; was educated at Dartmouth College, 
and there graduated in 1839, in a class ot sixty-one members. Five years later 
he took his medical diploma at Philadelphia, in one of the oldest medical colleges 
in Pennsylvania. He immediately commenced practice in Norwich, Connecticut ; 
remained there tor twelve years, and built up a high reputation as a physician. 

He labored so hard, protessionally and in other directions, as to impair his 
health, and in 1856 he sought the more invigorating climate of Minnesota, locat- 
ing at Winona, and resuming the practice of medicine. He soon took a high 
position among the fraternity, and had a remunerative practice. 



556 THE UNITED STATES Ji/OGEAJ'J//CAL TJICTIONARY. 

Here, as in the olit Connecticut town where he commenced medical practice. 
Dr. I^ord was the foremost man in educational matters, and when the question of 
locating the first normal school of Minnesota came up. and the time for a])])oint- 
ing the three commissioners had arrived, a citizen ul \\ inona, whose portrait 
appears in this volume, suggested to the governor that Dr. |ohn 1). Ford be 
appointed a member of that committee. The suggestion was complied with, the 
Doctor was appointed, and the school was located at W inona. He matured the 
normal-school system, was appointed the first president of the stale normal-school 
board, and held that position until he ceased Irom his earthl}' labors. 

Dr. I-'ord married Miss Eliza A. Morton, of Rochester, New York, in 1845, 
and she died on the 15th of March, 1S73, lea\ing one adopted daughter, Mary 
Elizabeth Ford. 



JOHN Q. A. NICKERSON, 

Ef.K h'lVER. 

JOHN OUINCY A. NICKERSON, treasurer of Sherburne county, and thirty 
years a resident of the Territor)- and .State of Minnesota, was born in New 
Salem, iM-anklin county, Maine, on the 30th of March, 1S25. He belongs to a 
family of landlords. His grandfather, Thomas Nickerson. from Cape Cod, Mas- 
sachusetts, kept a hotel many years in Augusta, Maine, and his father, Ephraim 
Nickerson, was a farmer and inn-keeper all his days. The mother of our subject 
was Dorinda Blake, who is still living at Elk River, and is in her ninetieth year 
and is in comfortable health. In 1836 Ephraim Nickerson uioxetl to Augusta, 
Kennebec county ; was proprietor of a iniblic-house there lour years, and then 
returned to farming; this time in New Limerick, Aroostook county. 'I he son 
finished his education at the Charleston and Corinth academies, in his native 
state; taught lhr(;c v^•inters; farmed at home till he arrived at age, and afterward 
farnu'd part of the time' and lumberetl the rest in his native state until 1844, when 
he came to the b'alls of St. Anthony. There he was engaged in chopping, team- 
ino- and workinsj" in saw-mills ior tour \ears. 

In the; spring of 1853 Mr. Nickerson came to Elk River, which then contained 
one house made of hewn timber, and which he purchased for an inn, in company 
with B. F. Hildreth, and which has since been enlarged two or three times, and 
which he has kept as a i)ublic-housc almost steadily for nearl\' a ([uartcr ol a 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 55; 

century. In the summer of 1855 the father of our subject came here from Maine, 
purchased the interest of Mr. Hildreth, and father and son continued together in 
the hotel (all but a vear or two, when it was rented,) until the demise of the 
former in 1S75, at the age of nearly eighty-four years. He was a soldier in the 
war of 1S12-15, and in middle life held offices of trust in his native state. 

During the first five or six years after settling at Elk River Mr. Nickerson 
lumbered considerably, and has always done more or less farming. His original 
farm was on the town site, and when the Saint Paul and Pacific railroad came 
through it cut his land all up, and he disposed of most ot it tor village purposes. 
He has a small farm two and a halt miles from town, and considerable unim- 
proved land, in all at least six hundred acres. 

Mr. Nickerson was postmaster here at an early day; has been in some town 
office almost constantly since coming to Elk River, and is now on his second 
term as county treasurer. He makes a \ctx^j taithiul officer, the citizens having 
unlimited confidence in his integrity as well as ability, and has a great many 
friends in tht' count)'. 

He is a republican of whig antecedents, often, years ago, attending district 
and state conventions. He is a Master Mason. 

The wife of Mr. Nickerson was fulia A. Farnham, a resident of Saint An- 
thony's Falls when married, October 2, 1S52, but a native of Maine. She has 
had six children and tive are livino-. Clara Adella is the wife of Thomas G. 
Hastey, of Minneapolis; Abbie D. is the wife of S. S. Trask, of Princeton, Min- 
nesota, and Edith A., Izetta and Clifford Farnham are young and living at home. 



HON. ANDREW G. CHATFIELD, 

BEI.r.li Pr.AINE. 

ANDREW COULD CHATFIELD, a member of the Minnesota district 
'- bench at the time ot his death, was a son of a New Yorker farmer, who 
came from Connecticut in his \-outh and settled in Otsego county, where, in the 
town of Butternuts, the suljject of this obituary was born, on the 27th of January, 
iSio. In T<S38 he became a member of the New York assembly, served in three 
or tour sessions, and was among the leading" politicians ot the younger class in 
that part of the state. In 184S he went to Racine, Wisconsin, and was county 
judge in 1850. 



558 77/ a: UN 11 ED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTJOXARY. 

In the early part of 1853, while in Washington, District of Columbia, Mr. 
Chattiekl made the acquaintance of General W. II Sibley, then the territorial 
governor of Minnesota, and received the appointment of associate justice of 
the supreme court of Minnesota; came to Mendota, and shortly afterward laid 
out, on a beautiful prairie, the town of Belle Plaine, .Scott count)', and gave it its 
name. As soon as his term as associate justice, extending from .April, 1853, to 
April, 1857, had t-.\[jired. he opened a law-oftice, and was in the practice until he 
went on the bench as judge ot the eighth judicial district, in |aiuiar\-, 1871, and 
was serving in that position when he dieil, on the 31! of (Jctober, 1875, 

At a meeting of the bar of the state, held at the capitol in .Saint Paul six 
days afterward, judge C. E. Flandrau, as chairman of a committee, presented a 
memorial, expressive of the sorrow of the Minnesota bar at the loss of one of 
their members, and speeches were made on the occasion by Hon. Aaron Good- 
rich, first chief justice of Minnesota; Hon. John L. MacDonald, now occupying 
the seat on the district bench vacated by our subject ; Ht)n. L. M. Brown, who 
has also occupied the same seat ; the late Governor W. A. Gorman, and others. 

Judge Chatheld was married in 1836, and the widow is postmistress at Belle 
Plaine. She has one daughter, Mrs. Cecelia Irwin, who resides in the same place. 



GENERAL JOHN B. SANBORN, 

SAINT PAUL. 

TWV. .Sanborns are an old New Hampshire tamily, two brothers settling then- 
more than two centuries ago. One oi the towns in that state, .Saiiljornton, 
was named for them. Nearl\- fort\- )-ears ago ( 1839) the writer ot this sketch, by 
request, commenced the history ot the tamil\- in this country, and his manu- 
script — the mere beginning of tlie history — was greatly enlarged a tew years 
ago, and publishetl in pamphlet form. It is a family of great longevity. From 
New Hampshire the members of it have spread over most of the states in the 
Union, and among the more noted and noteworthy members in the northwest is 
the subject of this brief memoir, who comes of good patriotic and fighting stock. 
His paternal great-grandfather, Eliphalet .Sanborn, served a short time in the rexo- 
lutionary army, and his maternalgrandfather, Benjamin Sargent, at thirteen years 
of age went in as a ilrnmmer-boy at the oj)ening of that eight years' struggle for 




J.laibiiSSMaUicSvr^^M^f'^i'''^ 




THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 561 

independence, and served throughout the war, falling into the ranks and carryino" 
a Hint-lock musket as soon as he was laro-e enough. losiah Sanborn, the Sfrand- 
father.of our subject, a farmer and lumberman of Epsom, Merrimack county, New 
Hampshire, was for seventeen consecutive years a member of the New Hamp- 
shire legislature, and a leading man in that part of the state. 

John Benjamin Sanborn is the son of Frederic Sanborn, now living in his 
ninetieth year, and Lucy L. Sargent, the latter a native of Pittsfield, New Hamp- 
shire. He was born on the 5th of December, 1826, in Epsom, on a farm which 
has been in the possession of the family for seven generations, and is now owned 
by his brother, Henry F. Sanborn. After receiving a common-school education, 
he prepared to enter Dartmouth College, but instead of continuing his literary 
studies, entered the law office of Judge Asa Fowler, of Concord, New Hampshire, 
and after reading for three years he was admitted to practice at a term of the 
superior court heid in Jul)', 1S54. In December of the same year he came to 
Minnesota and located at .Saint Paul; here, since that date, steadily practicing 
law when not engaged in the service of the state or the nation. 

In 1859-60 Mr. Sanborn was a member of the lower house of the legislature, 
serving" as chairman of the judiciary committee, and was largely instrumental in 
shaping the system of fundamental laws pertaining to county and township or- 
ganization and government, and the levying and collecting of taxes, — a system, 
says a writer, " which brought credit to the treasury, and financial order out of 
confusion." The next year he was sent to the upper house of the legislature, and 
was there at work lookine after the interests of his constituents when the old 
flag was insulted and disgraced at Charleston, South Carolina, and he was called 
upon to act in defense of his country. In April, 1861, he was appointed by 
Governor Ramsey adjutant-general and acting quartermaster-general of the state, 
and oroanizecl the first Minnesota regiments tor the war of the rebellion. In 
December of* the same year he was commissioned colonel of the 4th Minnesota 
Infantry, with headquarters at Fort Snelling. During that winter he garrisoned 
the posts and had command of the troops along the frontier of the state ; and 
early in the spring of 1862 he took his regiment to the south, reaching Pittsburgh 
Landing just in season to take position in the army advancing on Corinth. 
Colonel .Sanborn was immediately assigned to the command of a demi-brigade, 
composed of three regiments and a battery, holding that position until the evacua- 
tion of those works, when he was assigned to the command of the first brigade, 
63 



562 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

seventh division. Army of the Mississippi, subseciuently the seventeenth army 
corps. 

On the K)lh of Septemlicr, 1862, witii iiis hri^adc ( t\vt'nty-l\vo hundretl.meii ), 
he fought the battle of luka without much aid, and, althoui^h losincj six hundred 
of his men in less than an hour and a hall, he held his position and won a hril- 
lianl \ic'lor\'. I'nr his uailantrv' disjjlayed on this occasion he was promoteil to 
bri^ailier-neneral of \ohinteers. lie was in the battles ot I\)rt Gibson, Raymond, 
Jackson, Champion Hills, and the assault and sit^i^c ot X'icksbur^h, and part ol 
this lime had rommand ot a division; everywhere and on ,dl tr\in(j^ occasions 
exhibilin!^' the lirmness, coolness and bravery shown at luka. Alter tlu' sur- 
render nf \'icksi)ur^h, on the 4th ot July, 1S63, deneral .Sanborn hail command 
of the southwest district ot Missouri, where, after the campaign against the rebel 
General Price, upon the recommendation ot General Rosecrans, he was breveted 
major-t,feneral. 

General .Sanborn served until the close ot the war, and was then si-nt to the 
upper Arkansas and aloni;' the .Smoky Hill ri\er, to ^^\wx\ to travel the long- lines 
closed tor two _\ears across the plains to Colorado and New Mexico, and to 
restore; oi'der in that [jart ot our territory In Novembi-r, 1.S65, b)' order ot the 
President, he visited the Intlian Territory and succeeded, in a very short time, in 
establishing the proper relations between the late slaves of the Indians and their 
former masters. 

In 1S67 Cieiieral Sanborn — with (ienerals .Sherman, Harney, Terry, and 
Senator Henderson, of Missouri, — was appointed a special peace commissioner 
to till' Indians, The commissioners held councils and made treaties with the 
Che\'enne, Camanche, Northern .Arrajiahoc and Ci'ow tribes, and the several 
b.'intls of the Sioux nation. This commission recommended a lixed policv' to 
lie pursued toward the Indians; and that policy, while tollowed, was ilecidedly 
economical, and resulted in comparati\-e satet)- to the settlements on the trtuitit'r, 

{■"or the last ten or tw(;l\'c; years (/leneral .S.iuborn has given close attention 
to the legal iirofession, and stands high at the Ramsey count}- l)ar and in his 
judicial ilistrict. He practices in the se\-eral courts ol the state and in all the 
United .States courts. He was in the state legislature in i.Sj^. 

The General was originally a whig, and since that |)art\- disbanded has been 
an earnest ;ind locally an active re])ul)lican. He was ])ut torward as a canditlate 
lor the United .States senate, when Hon. .M. .S. Wilkinson was chosen, and came 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 563 

within two or three votes of being nominated in caucus, which would have been 
equivalent to an election. 

His religious sentiments accord with those of the Presbyterians, but he is a 
member of no church. 

General Sanborn's lirst wife was Miss Catharine Hall, of Newton, New Jersey; 
married in March, 1857. She died in November, i860, leaving one child, — Hattie 
F., aged twenty years. His second wile was Miss Anna Nixt)n, of Bridgeton, 
New Jersey, — sister of Judge Nixon of that state; married on the 27th of No- 
vember, 1865. She died on the 25th of |une, 187S. 



BENJAMIN R. PALMER, M.D., 

SA UK CENTER. 

BENJAMIN ROBINSON PALMER, a pioneer physician in Stearns coun- 
ty, Minnesota, and for some years an assistant-surgeon in the United States 
army, was born in .South Berwick, Maine, on the 15th of March, 1815, the Palmers 
being an old tamil\- in that state. His father was in the civil service in his )-ounger 
years, and a farmer in his later years. He died in 1876. The mother of our sub- 
ject, before her marriage, was Harriet Allen, she dying some years before. Early 
in life the son developed a fondness for study, and purposed to take a lull college 
course. With this end in view, he prejiared at Dover and Derry, New Hamp- 
shire, and entered Bowdoin College in 1834, but while in the sophomore year lost 
his health and was obliged t(j leave. In a short time his health was so improved 
that he commenced reading medicine with Dr. M. Hawks, of Eastport, Maine, 
tinishing with Dr. Peter P'ahnestock, of Pittsburgh, Penns)l\ania, and receiving 
his diploma from the Uni\ersity of Maryland, Baltimore, in 1.S44. 

Dr. Palmer practiced eleven or twelve years in Pittsburgh, and in 1856 came 
to Minnesota, and located at Saint Cloud, Stearns county, which county has since 
been his residence. In 1862 he became acting assistant-surgeon United States 
army, being on the frontier during the Sioux war, stationed most of the time at 
Sauk Center and Fort Ripley, being in that position about four years. .Since the 
close of the .Siou.x war .Sauk Center has been the home of the Doctor. He has 
an enviable repiitation, both as a practitioner and surgeon ; has traversed a broad 
area in this part of the state in the discharge of professional duties, and is well 



564 THE UNITED STATES B/OGRAPH/CAL DICTIOXARY. 

known all over Stearns, Todd, Douglas and Morrison counties. His acquaintance 
is very extensive, and he is everywhere well spoken ot. He was the first physician 
in Sauk Center. 

Dr. Palmer served, some years ago, on the local school hoard ; has been a 
court commissioner the last five or si.x years, and is president of the village coun- 
cil. He does not covet office, yet seems to be willing to bear his share of such 
burdens \\\m-\\ urged upon him. He is an eminently usetul citizen, outside as 
well as inside his protession. He is a great reader on scientific and other sub- 
jects, and keeps well posted on the current news of the day. yet medicine is his 
leading study, and his profession, which he so highly honors, claims his best 
hours and his chief attention. He is a member of the .State Medical .Society, but 
was off a railroad till the summer of 1878, and has rarely attended its meetings. 

The Doctor has a second wife. His first was Miss Julia Brewer, of Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania; chosen in May, 1852. She died in November, 1855. His 
present wife was Miss Anna B. D. Barrows, of Fryeburgh, Maine; their unifin 
taking place in August, 1858. 



HON. THOMAS WILSON, 

WINONA. 

THOMAS WILSON is thoroughly identified with the history of Minnesota 
since it became a state. He was a member of the constitutional convention 
in 1857, and was the first man to fill the bench in the third judicial district, when 
Minnesota assumed her sovereignty, in May, 1858; was born in Tyrone county, 
Ireland, on the i6lh of May, 1827. He prepared for college at different acade- 
mies; entered Allegheny College, Meadville, in 1848, and graduated in 1852. He 
read law in the same place with Hon. John \V. Howe, ex-member of congress; 
was admitted to the bar at Meadville, in February, '1855, and three months later 
settled in Winona, soon after becoming a member of the firm of .Sargent and 
Wilson. A few years later he was of the firm of Sargent, Wilson antl W'indom. 
In the autumn before Minnesota became a state Mr. Wilson was elected a 
district judge, taking his seat on the bench, as already intimated, as soon as the 
state was in tin- I'nion. After being on the district bench for six years, in the 
spring of 1864, he was appointed by Governor Miller to the supreme bench, to fill 
a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Flandrau, and in the autumn ol the 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 565 

same year he was elected chiei-justice ior the term ot seven years. After occupy- 
ing that position between four and five years, in 1869 he resigned, and has since 
given his entire time to the profession ol his choice, and in which he holds an 
eminent position. 

fudge Wilson was originally a democrat; acted with the republicans from 
1855 to 1872, when he was a delegate to the liberal republican national conven- 
tion which nominated Horace Greeley for the Presidency, and since that date has 
been entirely independent in his political views and actions. 



ALEXANDER MOORE, 

SACK CENTER. 

THE first white man to plunge into the forest and to strike a blow for civili- 
zation at Sauk Center, on the Sauk river, was Alexander Moore, whose 
name in the valley of that stream is as familiar as almost any "household word." 
He was born in the District of Columbia, on the i4th of April, 1823, his father 
being John O. Moore, many years a teacher in that district and in Pennsylvania, 
Michigan and Illinois. His grandfather was an officer in the revolutionary army. 
The maiden name of his mother was Rachel Evans. 

When Alexander was about seven years old the family moved to the " Key- 
stone State," settling near Bedford, and eight or nine years later to Monroe, 
Michigan. 

The subject of this brief biography received a common-school education be- 
fore moving to Monroe; there learned the trade of a machinist; worked at it 
fourteen years there and at Albion, Michigan, where he had a large foundry, and 
in the spring ot 1849 '^^ Michigan for California, by the mountain route. He 
was five months in reaching the mines; returned at the end of a year, and his 
neighbors persuaded him to head a company of them and once more visit the 
land of gold, going, this time, as he returned the first, by water. He made a suc- 
cess of both trips ; returned the second time with his pockets well lined with the 
pure article, but with his health greatly impaired. 

In the autumn ot 1851 Mr. Moore came to what is now east Minneapolis; 
built him a house; dealt heavily in real estate, and made, with two other parties, 
what is known as " Bassett, Moore and Case's Addition." He owned at one time 
a large part of north Minneapolis. 



566 THE UNITED STATES PIOGRA PIIICAI. DICTIONARY. 

Mr. Moore was the second merchant in Minneapolis proper; traded there 
uiilil the tall of 1857, \vh(!n, with thousantls of other merchants in the west, he 
hail his fall. 

In the autumn before (1S56), Mr. Moure had \isited the spot where Sauk 
Center now stands, bringing with him a gang ot workmen, and during the winter 
he built a dam across the river, there being then no settlement, nor excn a soli- 
tary hous^^ within twenty miles. 

The financial depression delayed business, or brought it to a stand, and his first 
saw-mill was not completeil till iiS6o. He moved his famil\- to this [)lace in iS(:)3. 

When the Siou.x began to butcher in iS(32 Mr. Moore was at Minneapolis; he 
immediately started in a buggy with his little horse " Billy," and rode to this 
place, a distance of one hundred and twi'Uty miles, in twenty-two hours. He 
reached Sauk Center at daylight in the morning; runners were dispatched in all 
directions, ten, fifteen and twenty miles, with teams ; the scattered families were 
all in town before dark, and tluring the night several of the houses vacated a tew 
hours before were bin-netl by the Intlians. The lives ol about thirty families 
were saved h\ Mr. Moore's promptness and e.xpedition. He set his saw-mill to 
work sawing out material for a stockade, which was \>\\\. up in great haste. Mr. 
Moore went to Saint Paul and asked Governor Ramsey for a company ot soldiers, 
and Colonel Barrett was sent out with a hundred men. and soldiers were stationed 
here three or four \ears. 

The horse which brought Mr. Moore through with such lleetness in a hot 
August day died a few years ago, at the age of twcnt\-one years, and had a 
respectable burial. He lies in the village grave-yard, near the family grounds ot 
Mr. Moore, with a picket fence around his grave, and is soon to have a suitable 
epitaph. 

Mr. Moore built a llouring-mill in 186;,, another in 1865, and at one time 
owned two saw-mills and one tlouring-mill, two of them in the timber. One of 
the saw-mills, for ;i period of three \-ears. gave employment to more than a hun- 
dred men. He lost both saw-mills in the limln-r b)- fu^e, and had the bad luck to 
lose six mills in as many \ears. In one niglu he lost, by water, a saw-mill, tlour- 
ing-mill, mill-tlam and three million feet ot [)ine lumber. \ahK:d at fort\' thousaml 
dollars. At times he has done a \ery hc'avy business at milling, merchandising 
and grain-buying. His cash receijUs in one )ear amounted to two lunulred and 
seventy-eight thousand dollars. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 567 

He now has a nourino-niill in Todd county, which he rents, and does but 
very Httle work, except to dispose of some of his real estate, being ahnost bHnd. 

Besides property in town, he has about ten thousand acres, mostly wild lands, 
in different parts of the state. His liomestead lies in a lot of six acres, and he 
has pleasant surroundings. In his orchard are seven hundred apple trees, which 
are doing well. Adjoining his homestead are seven hundred acres, only partl\- 
inipro\-ed. 

Mr. Moore was a member of the first board of commissioners for Hennepin 
county, and held, at one time, a similar position in Stearns county, but has avoid- 
ed office-holding as mucli as he could consist(Mitl\- with his duties to the public. 

He was reared in the whig school, and lor more than twent\- years has been 
a staunch republican. In a democratic district of eighteen hundred majority, he 
once came within tourteen votes ot an election to tlie legislature, being nominated 
against his wishes. He is a third-degree Mason. 

On the 2ist of Ma}', 1841, Miss Lovicy C. Perham, oi Chautauqua county, 
New York, became the wife of Mr. Moore, and they have lost four children and 
have four livino-: Triijhena A. is the wife of George M. Bennett, of .Saint Paul; 
Lindley B. has a family and lives in Sauk Center ; Clare M. is the wife of Ira M. 
Johnson, of Saint Paul, and Jessie Fremont is single and lives at home. 



HON. WILLIAM S. HALL, 

SA/NT PAUL. 

WILLIAM SPRIGG HALL, first judge of the court of common pleas 
organized in Minnesota, and who died on the 25th of P'ebruary, 1875, was 
one ot the best literary as well as legal scholars ever connected with the .Saint 
Paul bar. He was born near Annapolis, Maryland, on the 9th of July, 1832, and 
was the only son of William and Margaret Hall. He graduated at Saint John's 
College, in his native state, before of age; admitted to the bar in 1854; soon 
afterward came to Saint Paul, and his scholarly attainments being discovered by 
Governor Goriuan, in 1855, he was appointetl superintendent of public instruction 
for the territory. After the territory became a state he was elected to the senate, 
representing .Saint Paul several years, and ranking among the ablest men in that 
body. 



56S THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAI' H ICAl. PICTJONARY. 

In 1S67 he was elected juclge of the court of common pleas, and in 1.S74, on 
the rfcommendation of the entire liar of Ramsey county, he was renominated, 
anil was reelected without a dissentiny xote. 

A day or two after the burial of Judge 1 lall, on the 2d of March, the bar of 
Ramsey count\ lickl a meeting, and Judge Flandrau, chairman of a committee 
a])[)oint(d for the jjurpose, made a touching and graceful report, presenting the 
sentiments of the bar in regard to the deceased, and jjaying a fine tribute to his 
worth as a man, his ability as a lawyer, his dignity, patience and wisdom as a 
judge, antl his spU-ndid scholarship. On the same occasion ex-Go\'ernor CJor- 
man, after giving some details ot \\\v. lite ol the decea.sed, added : 

'I'lie judge whose deatli we iiu)urn held the scales of justice so even and true that his name will 
always be mentioned with lienor. His judicial career verified this truth, that 

" Honor and shanie from no condition rise; 
.\ct well your part, — there all the honor lies." 
He has passed beyond the reach of hiniian praise, and his adopted city has nothing left but his 
memory. To this we will cling with sincere affection, and kind memories will cluster around his tomb. 



HON. JOHN g. FARMKR, 

.S7V.'/A(- VM.LEr. 

JOHN (jUINCY 1'.\RMP:R, once s])eaker of the .Minnesota house of repre- 
sentatives, and still later a member of the state senate, is a native of Caledonia 
county, Vermont, having been born in the town ol Burke, on the 5th of August, 
1823. His parents were lliram and .Sclina (.Snow) I'armer, the father belong- 
ing to the hardy yeoman of the " Oreen Mountain State." Ihe grandfather 
of oiu' subject, Ijcnjamin FaniK^r, who was earl\' in the struggle for American 
independence, was among the pioneers in Caledonia count)', being ol Knglish 
descent. I'lie .Snows were originally Irom .Scotland. When John was nine years 
old the famil)' moxcd to the Western Reserve, Ohio, settling on a farm in Madi- 
son, Lake county, on which the son lived till about nineteen years old. Not 
satisfied with the crdiication which hi- had received in a district school during the 
winter terms, he now s|)ent |)ortions of three or four years at academies in Paines- 
\ ille, 'l\vinsbtn-gh and .Aiistinbin-gh, teaching five or si.\ winters. He su[jporli-d 
himsell enlirel)' while engaged in seciu'ing his edtication. 

Mr. l'"armer read law with Perkins antl Osborne, of Painesville ; attended the 




:.-n^I3Bvei^&.yS 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



5/1 



law school at Ballston Spa, New York, one year; was admitted to the bar at 
Painesville in 1851 ; practiced law at Conneaut, Ohio, six years, and the same 
period at Ashtabula, in company with L. S. Sherman, now judge of the court of 
common pleas in Ohio, and in 1864 removed to his present home, coming here 
on account of tlie poor health of his wife. In compan\' with his younger brother, 
James Duane Farmer, he has had a law office ever since settling at Spring Valley. 
Here, as he had in Ohio, Mr. Farmer has an extensive practice. He is well read 
in law, a candid and strong reasoner, and has great influence with a jury. 

In addition to law, Mr. Parmer has done considerable farming, largely, how- 
ever, by proxy. He has sixty acres well improved in Spring Valley, and farms at 
Grand Meadow and Austin, west of his home, — in all, five hundred or six hundred 
acres. As a business operator, he is a success. 

He is president of the Minnesota Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Associa- 
tion, and is well known all over the state for his superior business talents and his 
strong mental qualities. 

While a resident of Ashtabula county, Ohio, Mr. Farmer served one term as 
county attorney ; was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in 
1866, 1867 and 1 868, and speaker the last two years, and was a member of the 
state senate in 1870 and 1 87 1, being chairman of the judiciary committee both 
sessions. Intellectually, he. was a tall man in either branch of the legislature. 

He was originally a whig, and since 1855 has been a republican. He would 
not be called a bitter partisan, and has striven to keep out' of politics as much as 
he could. Office has sought him, not he office. 

Mr. Farmer is deeply interested in school matters, and is president of the 
Spring Valley board of education. In all that pertains to the best interests of 
the village he is a leading man. 

He is a blue-lodge Mason, — in religious sentiment, is quite liberal. 

Mr. Farmer has a second wife. His first was Miss Maria N. Carpenter, of 
Painesville, Ohio; married on the 17th of November, 1852. She died of con- 
sumption, on the i8th of March, 1866, leaving two sons, — George R., who is in 
the law office with his father, and Charles J., a student in tire graded school of 
Spring Valley. The second wife, who was Miss Susan C. Sharp, of Fillmore 
county, and a native of Ohio, was married on the 13th of January, i86g. She 
has five children, all sons, — John Frederic, John Coy, Dan, Earnest and P>ank. 

Mr. Farmer is a disciple of Isaac Walton, being one of the most noted anglers 
64 



5 72 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in suulhcrn .\Linnesota. He has done a urcat deal loward r(_i)lenisliiii;^ the local 
streams with the choicest kinds of fish, and drew the hill tor the present fish law 
of the state, which hill passed in the session of 1877. 



HON. WILLIAM R. MARSHALL, 

SAINT PAIL. 

WILLIAM RALNEY MARSHALL, state railroad commissioner, is of 
Scolch-Irish descent, and of good righting slock, both of his grandparents 
participating in the struggle for American independence. His father, Joseph 
Marshall, a farmer, was a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and his mother, 
Abigail Shaw Marshall, was born in I'cnnsyhania. W illiam was born in ISoone 
county, Missouri, on the 17th of October, 1S25; was educated in the schools of 
Ouincy, Illinois, and spent some ot his younger years in mining and surveying in 
the lead regions of Wisconsin. Li .September, 1S47, after spending three months 
at Saint Croi.x Falls, Wisconsin, he visited the Falls of .Saint Anthony, staked 
out a claim, cut logs for a cabin, but had no means o) hauling them, ,in<l two 
years later returned and perlected his title. 

In the spring of 1848 Mr. Marshall was (fleeted to the Wisconsin legislature, 
but his seat was contested by Joseph Bowron, of Hudson, on the; ground that 
Mr. Marshall lived outside the limits of the state, which had JList been admitteil 
Into the Union. The next )ear, while in the mercantile business at Saint An- 
thonv, he was elected a member of the territorial legislature', and in 1S51 moveil 
to .Saint Paul, he being the pioneer iron merchant in this place, flere he has 
since resided. 

In 1851 Mr. Marshall was engaged in surve)ing |)ublic lands; in 1855, with 
other parties, he established a banking house, which tlid well until the fmancial 
tornado of 1857 leveled it, with hundreds of other similar institutions in this 
country. Mr. Marshall then engaged in dairy farming and stock-raising, intro- 
ducing fine grades of cattle. 

On the ist of I.inuary, 1861, ha\ing purchased the .Saint Paul dail)- "Times" 
and the •■ Minnesotian," he gave them the name of " I )aily I'ress," conducting it, 
with the aid of other parties, with much ability. 

In 1862 Mr. Marshall enlisted in the 7th .Minnesota Infantry; was made lieu 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 573 

tenant-colonel of the regiment, and was in the expeditions of 1862 and 1S63 
made against the belligerent Sioux. In November of the latter year he was 
commissioned colonel of the regiment which he took t(j tlu- south, where it joined 
the sixteenth army corps. He served until the close of the war; exhibited much 
bravery and self-possession, and before coming out ol tin- service was breveted 
briyadier-gfeneral. 

In 1865 General Marshall was elected governor, and reelected in 1867. On 
vacating the gubernatorial chair, in January, 1870, he resumed banking, being- 
made vice-president of the Marine National Bank and president of the Minne- 
sota Savings Bank. 

In 1874 he was appointed a member of the board of railroad commissioners ; 
in November ot the next year was elected commissioner, and reelected in 1877. 
He has been a republican since there was such a party. 

General Marshall was one of the founders of the Swedenboroian church in 
Saint Paul ; is a liberal supporter ot religious and benevolent enterprises, and 
very public-spirited. 

His wife was Miss Abby Langtord, oi Utica, New York; married o\\ the 22d 
of March, 1854. They have one child, George Langford, aged fifteen. 



ALFRED E. AMES, M.D., 

MINNEAPOLIS. 

AS a representative of the pioneer settlers of Minnesota, and of eminently self- 
^ made men, none are more deserving of record in these pages than the sub- 
ject of this brief sketch. zAlfred Elisha Ames, whose lite was a success, in spite 
of difficulties that tew men could have surmounted and lett behind, was a native 
of Colchester, Vermont, where he was born on the 13th (jf December, 1814. His 
parents were liilly and Phebe (Baker) Ames. The fan-iily came originalh' from 
England, and their records show that previous to the revolutionar\- war Elijah 
Ames immigrated from Andover. Massachusetts, and settled in Preston, near 
Norwich, Connecticut. Here his only son, Joseph Ames, was married to Han- 
nah Tyler, by whom he had fourteen children. Of this family, the third son and 
fifth child was Billy, who subsequently moved to Colchester, Vermont, where he 
engaged in farming, and where he was married, on the 3d of December, 181 2, to 



574 



THE UXTTF.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



Phebe Baker. Their first-born, Alfred Elisha, when of proper age, attended the 
common schools a lew months each )'ear, workinij^ on a tarin the balance of the 
time until lu- was seventeen years okl. This completed the educational advan- 
ta'^es his parents were able to give him, but in this time he had imbibed many 
lessons not learned in books. Under the intluence of honest, frugal, industrious 
parents, especiall)- that of his e.xcellent mcnher, his mind was fitted to look beyond 
his immediate surroundings, and win his way to an honored and useful career. In 
1832- the family removed to Orwell, Ashtabula county, Ohio, where Mr. Ames 
bought a farm of two hundred acres, selling fifty of it to his son Allred, and giv- 
ing him his lime. The son was to pay fifty dollars, in atldilion to seventy-five 
already paid, and the ta.xes on the whole iarm until he was twenty-one. The 
seven ty-tive dollars he had obtained from the increase of one sheep in seventeen 
years, given him by his uncle, Elisha Baker, for whom he was named. 

In the fall of 1832 Alfred went to Painesville, Ohio, where he attended school 
the following winter, working for his board with a doctor. Here he first became 
interested in medicine, reading at odd times when the opportunity offered. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1833 he learned and worked at the trade of brick-making; in 
the fall went to New Line, and taught school during that winter, earning enough 
to balance accounts with his f ah(;r the following April ; worked at brick-making 
and farming this summer, and taught school again in the winter. During the 
spring and sununcr of 1835 worked at his trade, and in the tail attended school a 
couple of mouths in b'armington, and again taught school in tht: winter. The 
spring antl summer of 1836 he passed in the same way as the previous year, with 
the exception of a prospecting trip through Michigan w^ith his father. In Octo- 
ber of this year he sold his property in Orwell for three hundred dollars, and, 
with his newly wedded wife, immigrated to Boone count), Illinois, whither his 
father had moved a short time before. Here he erected a log cabin on his claim 
of one hundred anil sixty acres, at (larden Prairie, a small village near Belvidere. 
During the first winter here he, in addition to fencing in al)out ten acres ot his 
land, comi)iled an arithmetic. In April, 1837, leaving his wife in his father's fam- 
ily, he went to Chicago and worked at his trade until the 13th of August, when 
he was called home on account of the sickness of his father, who died the next 
day. Much now depended on his efforts, not only for his own, but also for his wid- 
owed mother and her family. Nothing but a firm reliance on a Divine Providence 
could have sustained him through the severe trials and hard times of that " wild- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 573 

cat" perioil <if 1837-38. That winter he worked hard at getting- out rails, hke 
" Honest Abe," and the following summer raised a small crop on a portion of 
his claim. 

On the 25th of November, 1838, taking a pack upon his back, he set out by- 
way of an Indian trail for Vandalia, then the seat of government of Illinois. Here 
he fortunately obtained emploj'ment, through the efforts of the Hon. .Stephen A. 
Douglas, as deputy of the secretary of state, and private secretary to Governor 
Carlin. In these positions he earned six dollars per day during the winter. In 
the fall of 1839 he again repaired to the capitol, which was then at Springfield, 
and was appointed deputy under -Stephen A. Douglas, then secretary of state, 
private secretary to Governor Carlin, and chief clerk of a house committee, clear- 
ing ten dollars per day that winter. 

In 1840 Mr. Ames attended medical lectures at Rush Medical College, Chi- 
cago, under Professor Daniel Brainerd ; afterward worked on his farm, reading 
medicine nights, and later with Dr. R. S. Malony, of Belvidere, where he also 
began to practice. In 1842 he was elected to the state legislature, from the coun- 
ties of Boone, McHenry, Kane, DeKalb and Grundy. In the spring of 1843, 
when the legislature adjourned, he went to Chicago and attended a course of 
medical lectures, studying with Professor Brainerd. Soon after he removed to 
Belvidere, having been commissioned postmaster of that place. Continuing his 
medical studies, he resigned his office on the ist of July, 1844, and removed to 
Roscoe, Winnebago county, where he entered upon the practice of medicine, and 
the foIlow>ing December was made postmaster of that place. Though his prac- 
tice was rapidly increasing, he attended another course of lectures at Chicago, 
graduating from Rush Medical College in February, 1845. ^'"' May and June, 
1847, made a professional visit to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washing- 
ton, Cincinnati and .Saint Louis, visiting all the hospitals, and deriving great 
benefit from the trip. In 1849 'I's practice at Roscoe had so increased that he 
had to relinquish some of it to others. During this year he was elected'to the 
state senate, overcoming a whig majority of twelve hundred, and running five 
hundred votes ahead. At Springfield, Governor French commissioned him pay- 
master-general of his staff In 1850, owing to his faithful devotion to the inter- 
ests of his constituents, he was reelected to the senate. In October, 1851, he 
went to Saint Anthony, Minnesota, in quest of a new home, and in November 
located a claim and built a shant)- on the present site ol Minneapolis. Forming 



5-6 THE UNITED STATES BJOGRAmjCAL DICTIONARY. 

a partncrshi]) with Dr. I. II. Murphy, he began the practice of medicine at Saint 
Anthony, now east Minneapolis. In the spring of 1852 he brouL;ht his family to 
their new home. During this year he was surgeon at Fort Snelling, and on the 
2 1st of October he was elected to the territorial legislature from Hennepin county. 
On the loth of October, 1854, he was elected probate judge. In [anuary, 

1856, Dr. Ames drew the bill for incorporating the village of Minneapolis, and 
on the 2ist of April was appointed postmaster of this ])lace. On the isl of June, 

1857, he was elected a member ot the constitutional convention, in which boil\- 
he was chairman of the committee on school lands and university, and in i860 
was a member ol the state normal scliool board, serviuL: durini-- the organization 
of that system. In 1862 he visited the hospitals in the principal eastern cities, 
and returning home, resumed his practice. In 1868 Dr. Ames took a trip east, 
visited Boston and his native place, and on the ist of May embarked at New 
\'ork city for California, whither he was absent several months. From this time 
to his death Dr. Ames continued to reside here and practice medicine. In addi- 
tion to his practice and the other duties mentioned, he served the public in many 
capacities ; was a member and nearly always a leader of all the medical societies, 
state and local, and also actively interested in all matters pertaining to educa- 
tional interests. In tact he was never idle, and scarcelv ever allowed to remain 
in private lite. During the summer of 1874 his health began to fail him, and lie 
gradually grew worse, in spite of the most skillful care and tender nursing, until 
the 24th of September, when he peacefully passed away. His funeral took place 
the following Sunday, the 27th of September, conducted Ijy Dr. McMasters, of 
.Saint Paul, and was attended by nearly all the Masonic bodies in the state. The 
remains were followed to Layman's Cemetery by as large a concourse of mourn- 
ing tViends as ever gathered together on a similar occasion in the state. 

Dr. Ames was an enthusiastic worker in the cause of Masonry, and probably 
did more for that botly in Minnesota than an)- other man. Man_\- lodges ihrouL;)!- 
out the state were organized and instructed by him, and ln' has been justh' callcil 
the father ot Masonry in Minnesota ; was first grand master and organized first 
grand lodge in the state. He was also known beyond his own state as a promi- 
nent member of the fraternity, and had attained that exalted station to which 
many aspire but few can reach, namely, the thirty-third degree. He accepted 
anil taught its doctrines, in their best and truest sense, and few men ever become 
as well versetl in matters pertaining to the craft, or respected them more. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



^ 1 1 



Dr. Ames was a member of the Episcopal church. 

He was married on the 28th of September, 1836, at Geneva, Ohio, to Miss 
Martha .A.. Pratt, daughter of Captain Alfred Pratt. By this union they had 
seven sons, five of whom, with their mother, survive him. 

Such is the brief record of one of Nature's noblemen, whose long' life was one 
of busy usefulness to his tellow-men ; and to all who desire a successful career, 
we commend his energy, industry and integrity as eminently worthy ot emulation. 



ALBERT A. AMES, M.D., 

MINNEAPOIAS. 

ALBERT ALONZO AMES, physician and surgeon, was born at Garden 
^ Prairie, Boone county, Illinois, on the 18th of January, TS42. His parents 
were Dr. Alfred Elisha and Martha A. (Pratt) Ames. His father was, in many 
respects, a remarkable man, and from his biographical sketch, which is elsewhere 
printed in this volume, a most excellent lesson may be gleaned. 

When Albert was about ten years of age the family removed to Minneapolis, 
which, at that time, was but a mere hamlet. The educational facilities of this 
time being rather meagre. Dr. Ames engaged a private teacher tor his boys. 
They afterward attended the public schools of the cit)-. When Albert was six- 
teen he graduated from the hioh school, and immediatelv commenced the study 
of medicine with his father. The winters of 1860-61 and 1861-62 he spent in 
attending lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois, under the tutor- 
ship of Professor Daniel Brainerd, being his assistant during the last term, and 
enjoying unusual facilities for studying surgery, which soon afterward proved 
very serviceable. On the 5th of February, 1862, less than one month after his 
twentieth birthday, he graduated M.D., and returned to Minneapolis. 

On the 2ist of April he was married to Miss Sarah, daughter of Captain 
Richard Strout, of Minneapolis. 

The following August Dr. Ames helped raise company B, of 9th Minnesota 
Infantry Volunteers, himself and brother enlisting. During the same month he 
was commissioned assistant-surgeon of the 7th Minnesota regiment, and at once 
departed for duty on the frontier, where the Indian war was then raging. Here 
he was engaged with his regiment in nearly every battle with the bloody Sioux 



37S THF. UNITED STATES BliHiRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

duriin' the ensuing year. In tlic fall of x'&dx he went south with his reyinient, 
where he was eneaeed in active field service until the close of the war. Here 
the division suryjeon soon became (|uite interested in the young surgeon with 
such a l)o}ish face, yet who performeil ditficult ()])erations so skilllulh'. ami he 
afforded him such oi^portunitics tor experience as quick))' made him one ot the 
best surgeons, though the youngest, in the army, in Jul)-, 1864, Dr. Ames was 
commissionctl surgeon of his regiment, and served in that capacity until mustt-red 
out of the service at k^^ort .Snelling, on the iKth of .August, 1865. 

Returning to Minneapolis, he entered into partnership with his father for 
practice of medicine and surgery. In Novemljer, 1866, he was elected a nu-mber 
Irom.l Icnnepin county to the state legislature. 

On the 1 6th of March, 1868, he started for California, going by way of the 
Isthmus. Arri\cd at .San brancisco, he entered into the newspaper business, 
encraaine as local reporter on the " Daily Times." Active, energetic, and i)os- 
sessing more than average ability, he soon worked his way up from this position 
to that of managing editor of the " Daily Alta California." 

In September, 1874, Dr. Ames returned to Minneapolis, being summoned by 
tele<n-aph to attend the death-bed of his father, who died eight days after his 
arrival. 

.Since then he has remained here, taking up the [practice of his lather and con- 
tinuing it, in company with Dr. A. H. Salisbury, untler the firm name of Ames 
and Salisbur)'. In riddition to their e.xtended medical practice. Dr. Ames has 
probably the largest surgical practice in the state ; but not the most lucrative, 
for, though a good physician, he is a poor collector. He has dressed many a 
poor fellow's wounds and bruises and ne\er mentioned the word pay ; always 
ready to relieve the suffering (jf the poor as ])romptly as the rich, antl never hesi- 
tating to put his hand in his pocket to pay for the medicine, if necessar\-. He 
has become tleservedly popular with all classes. His army experience and subse- 
quent study have enabled him, though )et a comparatively young man, to suc- 
cessfully perform many extremely delicate and difficult operations, Irom which 
older physicians shrank and thought alnn)si impossible. 

In 1875 he was a member of the city council, elected from the ninth ward. 
In 1876 hr was chosen to the responsible position of head of the city govern- 
ment, being denominated the" Centennial Ma\()r." In 1877 he was the democratic 
nominee for liculcnant-governor, but, as a matter of course, was unal)le to over- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 579 

come the large regular republican majority. He has been health officer of the 
city for the past year. 

In politics, the Doctor has ever been democratic, though never a partisan, or he 
would not have held the offices he has, where there is a regular majority for the 
opposite party. 

Dr. Ames is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and also of the 
Odd-Fellows, Druids and Knights of Pythias. 

As a physician, he is well read, and keeps thoroughly posted on all matters 
of interest to the profession. . As a man of business and a citizen, he is active, 
resolute and full of energy, and, carrying these qualities to the mayor's chair, he 
made just such a prompt, vigorous officer as the city needed. He adopted meas- 
ures for the conduct of city affairs that resulted in great benefits ; took the almost 
worthless police force, reorganized, uniformed and disciplined them, and made 
them a force of which the city is justly proud ; making, withal, an excellent mayor, 
though one to make old fogies wake up. 

He has three children living, named Charlie C, Efifie F. and Frankie E.Ames. 



HON. HASKALL R. BRILL, 

SAINT PAUL. 

HASKALL RU.SSELL BRILL, probably the youngest man on the Min- 
nesota bench, is a son of Thomas Russell and Sarah Sager Brill, and was 
born in the county of Missisquoi, Canada, on the loth of August, 1846. He 
attended H aniline University, at Red Wing, long enough to go part way through 
the sophomore year, and then took a partial course in the University of Michi- 
gan, at Ann Arbor. 

Mr. Brill commenced reading law in December, 1867, and was admitted to 
practice in Saint Paul, on the 31st of December, 1869, forming a partnership 
with Stanford Newell. After practicing about three years Mr. Brill was elected 
probate judge, and served two years. On the demise of William S. Hall, first 
judge of the court of common pleas in Minnesota, Governor Davis appointed 
Judge Brill, on the ist of March, 1875, to fill the vacancy. A few months later, 
at the regular autumn election, he was chosen by the people to the same office 
for the term of seven years. At the session of the legislature held in 1876 the 

6.S 



580 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

court of common pleas was merged with the district court of the second judicial 
district, Judge Brill remaining in office. His term will expire with the year 1883. 

In politics, Judge Brill is a republican, and has never been anything else. 

On the iith of August, 1873, Judge Brill was united in marriage with Miss 
Cora A. Gray, of Suspension Bridge, Niagara county. New York, and they have 
two children. 



RIGHT-REV. HENRY B. WHIPPLE, D. D., 

FARIBAlI.r. 

HENRY BENJAMIN WHIPPLE, IVotestant Episcopal bishop of the 
diocese of Minnesota, was born in the town of Adams, Jefferson county, 
New York, on the 15th of February, 1822. His parents were John H. and Eliza- 
beth Wager Whipple. The Whipples were early settlers in Massachusetts. Ben- 
jamin W'hipple. the father of John H., was in the revolutionary war, and taken 
prisoner, i)iit on board a British ship, and h(;ld a long time. 

The subject of this sketch gave his early years to study, designing to go di- 
rectly through college, but while making preparation his health failed, and he 
devoted several years to mercantile business at Adams. In 1S47, '^'s health being 
improved, he relinquished trade, became a candidate for orders in the Protestant 
Episcopal church; pursued his studies with Rev. W. D.Wilson, D.D., since pro- 
fessor in Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and in August, 1849, ^'^^ ordained 
deacon in Trinity Church, Geneva, New York, by Right-Rev. W". H. De Lancy, 
D.D. 

On Achent Sunday of the same year Mr. Whipple took charge of Zion Church, 
Rome, New York. He was ordained jiriest by the bishop just mentioned, on the 
i6th of Inly, 1S50; had calls to Grace Church, Chicago, and Saint Paul's Church, 
Milwaukee, in the winter of 1856-57, but declined. In the early part of 1857, at 
the solicitations of persons interested in free churches, he went to Chicago, and 
on Easter Sunday organized the Church of the Holy Communion, a free-seated 
church, one of the first Episcopal churches of the kind in the west. 

He was elected bishop of the diocese of Minnesota on the 30th of June, 1859 ; 
was consecrated on the 13th of the following October at Richmond, Virginia, 
and spent the following winter in visiting his diocese, holding his first service at 
Wabasha. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 5<Si 

In the spring of i860 Bishop Whipple, with his family, settled in Faribault, he 
having been married on the 5th of October, 1842, his wife being Miss Cornelia 
Wright, daughter of Hon. Benjamin Wright, of Adams, New York. He broucdit 
with him six children, all yet living but the youngest son. 

Prior to the Bishop's settling in Faribault, Rev. Messrs. J. L. Breck and .S. W. 
Manney had commenced an associate mission here, designing to establish denomi- 
national schools ; and one of the first steps of the Bishop was to organize Bishop 
Seabury Mission, under which corporation are the Seabury Divinity College and 
Shattuck School. Saint ^Mary's Hall, also located at Faribault, and devoted ex- 
clusively to the education of young ladies, has a separate board of trustees. 
These schools are all popular and well patronized, and are annually sending out 
large numbers of young men and young women, equipped for usefulness in the 
world. From the Divinity College have gone out between forty and fifty clergy- 
men, most of them now in fields of much usefulnes.s. 

Under the direction of Bishop Whipple church schools have been established 
at Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Shakopee, Red Wing and Hastings. At White Earth, 
Polk county, is a Chippewa Indian Mission, with a church of between three and 
four hundred members, and schools and a hospital. 

Since the Bishop settled in Minnesota more than thirty Episcopal churches 
have been formed, and the denomination has been very largely strengthened. 
The churches in his diocese, numljering in all not far from sixty, are all free but 
four or five. 



REV. EDWARD LIVERMORE, 

SAINT PETER. 

THE subject of this sketch, more than forty years an Episcopal clergyman, 
comes from a notable New Hampshire family. His grandfather, Samuel 
Livermore, was chief-justice of New Hampshire, a member of the continental 
congress, and of the house of representatives and United States senate, being, in 
fact, in public life all his days. The father of our subject, Arthur Livermore, was 
also chief-justice of New Hampshire, residing at Holderness, Grafton county, 
where the son was born, on the i8th of March, 1815. Edward prepared for col- 
lege in the neighboring town of Plymouth, entered Dartmouth at fourteen years 
of age, and was graduated in the class of 1833. He prepared for the ministry 



582 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPJIJCAL DICTIONARY. 

in the General Seminary, New York city; was ortlained deacon at New Bedford, 
Massachusetts, in September, 1837, by Bishop Griswold, and priest by the same 
bishop, in Boston ; in March, 1839, '^^''^s rector at Little Falls, Waterloo, and one 
or two other places in New York; spent one year at the south, and in i860 be- 
came rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, Saint Peter, and still holds 
that position. About ten years ayo, mainly through his efforts, the funds were 
raised for a church, and a neat and tasty house of worship built of stone in the 
Gothic style was erected. Here he: has labored laithfully for more than eighteen 
years, often preaching- in other towns, antl doing no inconsiderable missionary 
work. He is a refined and scholarly gentleman, and has done much to elevate 
the social as well as moral and religious tone of Saint Peter society. 

^Ir. Livermore was first married in December, 1839, '^^ Miss Elizabeth Greene 
Hubbard, daughter of Henry Hubbard, Boston, Massachusetts; she died in May, 
185 1. His present wife was Miss Mary S. McCormick, daughter of Colonel 
Henry McCormick, of Owego, New York. They have two children, a son and 
daughter, living, and lost three in infancy ; Arthur Brown is a candidate for orders 
in the Protestant Episcopal church. 



CHARLES F. ROGERS, 

LAKE CIT)-. 

WHAT is usually termed genius has little to do with the success of men in 
general. Keen perception, sound judgment, and a determined will, backed 
by persevering and continuous effort, are essential elements to success in any call- 
ing, and their possessor is sure to accomplish the ends hoped for in the days of 
his youth. Our subject is another example ot what can be accomplished by honest, 
steady and industrious application to business, ami his name is eminently worthy 
a place in this record of self-made men of Minnesota. 

Charles Frederick Rogers was born at Barnstead Parade, New Hampshire, on 
the 17th of November, 1831. He was the third child of Charles Harris Rogers, 
and is descended from an old Virginia family, whose ancestors came from Eng- 
land about two hundred years ago. The father of Charles F. was educated for the 
Congregational ministry, but his inclinations inclining- more to an active business 
life, he engaged in the manufacture of cloths and woolen goods. He was a man 





'J>. 



^-^>^1^-^J^ 



6/ 



S^-bfMSM»P.iSm^i3SareUY SzXT 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 585 

of many good qualities, deserving and possessing the confidence of his fellow- 
men ; was twice honored with a seat in the New Hampshire state senate, and for 
many years held the responsible office of high sheriff The mother of our sub- 
ject was Abigail S. Copp, daughter of Robert Copp, and sister of the celebrated 
physician and surgeon, Dr. Robert S. Copp, who married Mary A., sister of C. 
H. Rooers. 

With the exception of one year at the Thetford Academy, the subject of this 
sketch derived his education from the common schools, as many of our best and 
most successful citizens have done before and since. In 1849 he left home to 
engage in the battle of life on his own responsibility; went to Lowell, Massachu- 
setts, and remained there, clerking and book-keeping, until 1854, when he went to 
Boston and engaged in the clothing business for himself; finding rents and other 
expenses rather too high for his limited capital, he soon afterward removed to 
Nashua, in his native state. A few years later he made a move which he had 
long desired to, and came west, arriving at Chicago in the spring of 1857. The 
general depression of business, which culminated in the great financial crash of 
that year, offered him no opportunity for employment, and after many fruitless 
endeavors to obtain work he went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, spending the suc- 
ceeding three years, there and in Columbus, same state, engaged in clerkino-. In 
August, i860, in company with Mr. Horace C. Cooper, of Columbus, the wealthi- 
est dry-goods merchant in Columbia county at that time, Mr. Rogers opened a 
mercantile business at Lake City, Minnesota, where for thirteen years he success- 
fully carried on the dry-goods trade; he also engaged in the agricultural implement 
business, a branch of trade which still claims much of his attention. By judicious 
and persistent effort in the management of his business enterprises, he has ac- 
quired a handsome property, with a good prospect of increasing wealth before him. 

He is one of the directors and a stockholder in the First National Bank of 
Lake City. 

In 1858 he became a member of the Maso-nic fraternity at Columbus, Wiscon- 
sin, and was one of the organizers of the Lake City lodge. 

In politics, he affiliates with the republican party, and is quite liberal in his 
views. In 1878 he was the candidate of his party for the state legislature, but 
was defeated by a small majority. 

In religious sentiment, he inclines toward the Congregational church, of which 
his wife is a member. Though not a member himself, he is a reliable and liberal 
supporter of the church. 



586 THE UNITED STATES BWGRAPIJJCAL DICTIONARY. 

On the 1st of November, i860, at Columbus, Wisconsin, he was married to 
Miss Ahce R., daughter of Horace C. and Julia A. Cooper. Three promising 
daughters, named respectively Julia, Josie and Ktta, have blessed their union, 
and add brightness and joy to their spacious and elegant home in Lake City. 
Mrs. Roc-ers is a well educated and accomplished lady, and by her many acts of 
courtesy and kindness, especially to those who have enjoyed her gx^nial hospitality, 
has endeared herself to a large circle of iricnds and accinainlances. In 1876 Mr. 
Rogers and wife, in company with Mrs. Willard Scott, junior, of Naperville, Illi- 
nois, attended the Centennial, visiting some oi llu' principal cities of the eastern 
states. 

Mr. Rogers is a good financier, a man of progressive ideas, and liberal in 
devising for the interests of the community in which he lives. He has the confi- 
dence and respect of those with whom he comes into business relations; has seen 
much of the world; is wide awake to all matters of public concern, and has done 
as much or more than any other man to develop and build up the city in which 
he resides. 



HON. JOHN M. OILMAN, 

SAINT PAUL. 

JOHN MELVIN OILMAN, son of John Oilman, senior, a physician, and Ruth 
Curtiss, was born in Calais, Vermont, on the 7th of September, 1824. His pro- 
genitors in this country came from England and were early settlers in Massachu- 
setts and New Hampshire, one or two towns in those states being named for this 
family. Dr. Oilman died when the subject of this sketch was only six months 
old. The orphan boy spent his earlier years mainl)- in receiving an education, 
graduating from the Montpelier Academy in 1843. 

He read law with Hcaton and Reeil, of Montpelier, and was there admitted 
to the bar in 1S64. During the same year he moved to New Lisbon, Ohio, and 
was there in the practice of his profession for eleven years, serving one term, in 
1849-50, in the legislature of that state. 

In September, 1857, Mr. Oilman took another western stride, bringing up at 
Saint Paul, then the northwestern suburbs for attorneys wishing to keep within 
the bounds of business and civilizations. Red Indians never going to law, and the 
Sioux but a few miles away. He reached Saint Paul just as the financial mon- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 587 

soon ot that year had swept over the country. Nothing daunted, he formed a 
partnership with Hon. James Smith, junior, and has never taken down his sign. 
He is now at the head of the firm of Gihnan, Clough and Lane, one of the lead- 
ing law firms at the capital. In spite of more than one moneyed crisis, through 
which he has passed since he landed here twenty-one years ago, Mr. Gilman has 
been, on the whole, a thrifty attorney. 

Mr. Gilman has served four terms in the Minnesota legislature, and has always 
been on the judiciary and other important committees. His experience in two 
states of the Union has made him a valuable legislator. His abilities have been 
put forth to good advantage in the house of representatives, where his services 
have been truly valuable. 

His affiliations have always been with the democratic party, of which he is 
one of the leaders in Ramsey county. He has twice been the democratic candi- 
date for congress, but as his party was greatly in the minority he, of course, was 
not elected. He has also been chairman of the democratic state central com- 
mittee. 

Mr. Gilman was married to Miss Anna Cornwell, of New Lisbon, Ohio, on 
the 25th of June, 1857. 



HON. LEWIS H. GARRARD, 

LAKE crrr. 

THE subject of this sketch was born, June, 1829, in Cincinnati, Ohio; of Ken- 
tucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania, New Jersey stock, — all of active revolu- 
tionary antecedents. On account of delicate health he left school and passed a 
year (1846-7) in New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, with the Indians and 
fur-traders. A narrative of this trip, entitled " Wah-to-Yah and the Taos Trail," 
was published in 1850. 

Graduate, in 1853, of the medical department of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. In 1856 wrote a memoir of Charlotte Chambers, for family circulation, 
the prefatory sketch to which, under the title of " Chambersburgh in the Colony 
and the Revolution," was published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 
Of this society, and those of Ohio and Minnesota, he is a member. 

In July, 1854, he came to Minnesota, remained a few months, returned to 
Ohio, and then went to Europe for two years; and in August, 1858, settled at 



588 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

the picturesque locality of Frontenac, on Lake Pepin, Goodhue county; bought 
five thousand acres of land, and sought, — in turning over the virgin prairie, the 
breedino-of Devon cattle. Southdown sheep, and other useful fancies which ample 
pecuniar}' resources enabled him to gratify, — the aesthetic pleasures of rural 
life in \\w\\ latitudes. He also claims the gentle distinction of being the first 
person in the state to introduce the cultivation of orchard grass, which, for graz- 
ing or hay, is without equal. Was, in 1859, elected a county supervisor, and 
subsequently was several times chairman of the township board. Was a member 
of the republican state convention of 1S59, '^^^ same year was chosen member 
of legislature of 1859-60. Was draft commissioner for Goodhue county. Of 
four brothers, the other three of whom were brigade and division commanders, 
he was the only one whom continually recurring obstacles kept at home. 

In 1862 he married Florence Van Vliet, of Lake City; of their several 
children, two, Edith and Anna, are living. 

Moved to Lake City in 1870, and in that year organized witli others the 
First National Bank, and was its president for three years, when he sold his 
interest in il. In April, 1876, was chosen mayor of Lake City as the " License" 
candidate, and the following year reelected as the exponent of law and order. 
Was in the legislature in 1876-77. 



HON. LAFAYETTE EMMETT, 

FARIBAULT. 

LAFAYETTE EMMETT, seven years on the supreme bench of Minnesota, 
-^ is a son of Abraham and Sarah Zerick Emmett, and was born in Mount 
Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, on the 8th of May. 1822. He was educated in the 
common and select schools of Mount Vernon ; commenced reading law at seven- 
teen, with Columbus Delano, late of President Grant's cabinet, supporting him- 
self by teaching during the winters ; read four \cars, the law not allowing him to 
practice till of age ; was admitted to the bar at Mount \'ernon ; remained in the 
same law-office two years ; was then elected prosecuting attorney, serving one 
term, and continuing in practice at Mount Vernon until May, 1851, when he set- 
tled in Saint Paul. 

Mr. Emmett served as attorney-general of the territory during the terms of 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 589 

Governors Gorman and Medary; was a member of the constitutional convention 
in 1857, and elected chief-justice of the state in 1858. 

In 1872 he removed from Saint Paul to Faribault. He is a pronounced demo- 
crat ; has never voted any other ticket, and is a Master Mason and a communicant 
in the Episcopal church. 



JEREMIAH E. FINCH, M.D., 

HASTINGS. 

JEREMIAH ENGLIS FINCH, president of the Minnesota State Medical 
J .Society, is a native of Woodstock, Province of Ontario, Canada, and born on 
the 22d of November, 1829, his parents beiny Titus and Leah (Drake) Fincli. 
His p-randfather, Titus Finch, senior, came from Enoland and settled first in 
Nova Scotia, afterward immigrating to what is now the Province of Ontario. 

When the subject of this sketch was quite young, the family moved to Long 
Point Bay, Norfolk county, in the southern part of the Province, on the shore of 
Lake Erie'; and there he was reared on a farm, receiving his literary education at 
the Brockport Academy, New York, where he spent two years. He read med- 
icine at Toronto with Dr. John Rolfe, once a member of the Canadian parliament ; 
attended medical lectures in the same city, and was graduated M.D. in 1854. 

Dr. Finch practiced a few months in Du Page county, Illinois ; between one 
and two years at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and in November, 1856, settled at 
Hastings. Here he has been in constant practice, except during one year's ser- 
vice in the Union army. He was appointed surgeon of the 7th Minnesota In- 
fantry in 1862, and losing his first-born child a year later, he resigned and hastened 
home. 

In his studies, the Doctor has confined himself to his profession and its col- 
lateral branches. He is a close student and well posted, being an expert both in 
medicine and surgery, yet very modest and unassuming. At a meeting of the 
.State Medical Society, held in June, 1878, he was unanimously chosen president 
of the society, an act clearly indicating his standing among the medical fraternity 
of the state. 

He is a member of the American Medical Association, and was a delegate to 
its annual meeting held in Philadelphia in 1872. His standing in the medical 
fraternity of the country is highly respectable. 

66 



5 go THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

He has been a frequent contributor to medical periodicals, and some of his 
papers have been reproduced in British journals. 

The Doctor was mayor of the city of Hastings one term ; has been president 
of the local school board for the last eight or nine years, and always stands ready 
to lend a hand in advancing the educational interests of the city. He sometimes 
lectures to the students of the high school on anatomy, physiology, hygiene and 
physics, thus making himself especially useful. The unusually high grade of 
studies in this school is owing largely to his influence. 

He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order, and was grand lecturer one 
year, — all the time he would consent to serve in that capacity, though he was 
elected for a term of five years. 

He has been married since the loth of May, 1858, his wife being Mrs. Mary 
E. Holmes, of Hastings. They have had three children, only one of them, Albert 
Ames, is now living. 



HON. DANIEL A. DICKINSON, 

MANKATO. 

DANIEL ASHLEY DICKINSON, judge of the sixth judicial district, is a 
native of Hartford, Windsor county, Vermont, and was born on the 28th 
of October, 1839, being one of the youngest men on the Minnesota bench. His 
father, Wright S. Dickinson, was a farmer, and afterward a merchant, the family 
beingrfrom Massachusetts. The maiden name of the mother was Martha jennison. 
When Daniel was six or seven years old the family moved to Boston, Massachu- 
setts. He lost bolli parents when he was young, and spent his youth under the 
guardianship of his grandfather, Gideon Dickinson, at West Lebanon, New Hamp- 
shire. He prepared for college at Mereden, New Hampshire; entered Dartmouth 
in 1856, and graduated in i860; read law with Smith M. Weed, of Plattsburgh, 
New York; was admitted to the bar in that state in 1862, but before commencing 
practice, entered the naval service as acting paymaster, and served in that capac- 
ity till the spring of 1865. 

Mr. Dickinson practiced his profession at Plattsburgh until the spring of 
1868; then came to Mankato, and here practiced until he went on the bench, in 
February, 1875, his term expiring with 1881. He is a man of great application, 
a thorough lawyer, and, as a judge, is thoughtful and considerate, weighing evi- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



591 



dence with much care. He is not crotchety, has a perfect command of his tem- 
per, all the urbanity of a gentleman, and the utmost confidence of the legal 
fraternity. 

Politically, Judge Dickinson affiliates with the republican party. He is a 
Master Mason, and a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, being warden 
of the same. 

The wife of Judge Dickinson was Miss Mary E. Weed, a sister of Smith M. 
Weed, of Plattsburgh, New York. They were married on the i ith of June, 1867, 
and have three children. 



HON. T. G. MEALEY, 

MONl'ICELLO. 

TOBIAS GILLMOR MEALEY, state senator from Wright county, and a 
leading merchant at Monticello, is a native of the Province of New Bruns- 
wick, Canada, and was born in Penfield, on the 5th of August, 1823, his parents 
being Malcolm and Delia Woodbury Mealey. His grandfather, James Mealey, 
came from Dublin, Ireland. His mother belonged to the New England branch 
of the Woodbury family, and was distantly related to Hon. Levi Woodbury, of 
New Hampshire, secretary of the navy during the administration of President 
Jackson. Tobias was reared a farmer, the occupation of his father; received only 
a common-school education ; in 1845 opened a country store in his native town ; 
in 1849 went to California, and did a contracting and lumber business for three 
years with fair success ; returned to New Brunswick, and was in the mercantile 
and lumber trade until 1855, when he settled in Monticello. 

Mr. Mealey has held the offices of justice of the peace and judge of probate 
awhile since locating in Wright county; was a member of the house of represen- 
tatives, representing his county in 1873, and a member of the state senate in 
1874, 1875 ^nd 1878. In the upper house he usually served on the most impor- 
tant committees — finance, railroad, towns and counties, taxes and tax laws, etc. 
During his first session in the senate, according to the biographical historian of 
that body, he was " the prime mover and leading spirit in pushing through the 
legislature what is known as 'the Iron-Clad Tax Law.'" He was reelected state 
senator in 1878. 

Mr. Mealey acted with the republican party until 1872, since which date he 



592 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

has affiliated with the liberals and democrats. He was a delegate to the national 
convention which met at Saint Louis in 1876; was one of its vice-presidents, and 
heartily supported Samuel J. Tilden for President. 

He was married in 1855, his wife bein_i; Miss Catherine J. Trescolt, of New 
Brunswick, a distant relative of the historian, William H. Prescott, her father 
beim-r a Maine man. Of six children, of whom she has been the mother, hve are 
livino-. 

Mr. Mealev early learned to work; has been in lousiness for himst-lf mort- than 
thirty years; has been a man of most e\eini)lary habits. He is one of the best 
preserved men in Wright county, and it is doubtful if any man here is more highly 
esteemed. He lives in a republican county, and always succeeds when a candi- 
date for office, — an indication of his standing among his constituents. 



MAJOR JOSEPH R. BROWN, 

SAINI' PAUL. 

FOR a large portion of the following brief sketch of one of Minnesota's 
greatest pioneers we are indebted to the graceful pen of J. F"letcher Will- 
iams, having taken it almost entire from an article written b\- him shortly after 
Major Brown's decease. 

Joseph Renshaw Brown, an ex-editor ami ijublisher of Minnesota, one of the 
most widely known public men of the statt-, and at his death its oldest white set- 
tler, was born on the 5th of January, 1805, in Hartford county, Maryland. When 
about fourteen years of age his father apprenticed him to a printer in Lancaster, 
Penns\lvania, but being treated with great harshness and injustice by his em- 
ployer, he soon after ran away. He came to what is now Minnesota, with the 
d(;tachmcnt of troops that built Fort .Snclling in 1819, and remained a rcisiilent 
from that linn- until his death, a period of (jver fifty years. 

On leasing the army, about 1825, he resided at Mendota, Saint Croix, and 
other points in the state, engaged in the Indian trade, lumbering and other occu- 
pations. He accpiired a perfect acquaintance with the Dakota tongue, anil at- 
tained an inlluence among that nation (being allied to them by marriage) which 
continued unabated while he lived. He was elected a member of the Wisconsin 
leo-islature from Saint Croix county in 1840, 1 84 1 and 1842, taking prominent 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



593 



part in those sessions. He was also a leading member of the famous " Stillwater 
convention " of citizens, held in August, 1848, to take steps to secure a territorial 
organization of What is now Minnesota. He was secretary of the territorial 
councils of 1849 and 1851, and chief clerk of the house of representatives in 185^, 
a member of the council in 1854 and 1855, and of the house in 18^7; was terri- 
torial printer in 1853 and 1854. He was also a member from .Sibley county in 
the constitutional convention of 1857. In August, 1852, he purchased "The 
Minnesota Pioneer," and edited and published it under his own name for nearly 
two years. In 1857 he established at Henderson, a town founded and laid out bv 
him a short time before, a journal called " The Henderson Democrat," which soon 
became a prominent political organ, and was continued with much success until 
about 1 86 1. 

In the Indian war, which broke out in 1862, Major Brown took an active part. 
He also figured somewhat as an- inventor. He had a force, originality and oenius 
of invention in him which was always impelling him in new paths. It was a 
favorite project of his to build a wagon propelled by steam, which would travel 
at will over the dry, hard road of our prairies. While perfecting this invention 
he died in New York city, on the 9th of November, 1870. 



HON. JOHN L. MacDONALD, 

S//Ah'OPEE. 

JOHN LEWIS MacDONALD, judge of the eighth judicial district, is a 
native of Glasgow, Scotland, where he was born on the 22d of February, 1836. 
His paternal ancestors were Highlanders of the clan " MacDonald of the Isle." 
The parents of our subject. Dr. John A. and Margerey MacDonald, crossed the 
ocean when he was five or six years old ; lived a few years in Nova Scotia, and 
in 1847 located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the son received an academic 
education. 

In 1855 Mr. MacDonald settled in Scott county, Minnesota; read law with 
Judge Andrew G. Chatfield, of Belle Plaine ; was admitted to the bar at .Shako- 
pee in the spring of 1858, and the law was his main business until he went on the 
bench. He removed from Belle Plaine to .Shakopee, the county seat, in 1861. 
While residing in the former place, in addition to practicing law, Mr. MacDonald 



594 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



published and edited the Belle Plaine " Enquirer" from 1859 to 1861, and served 
as judge of probate during the same period. 

In 1862 he established the Shakopee "Argus," conducted it between one and 
two years, and sold out, in order to give his time more fully to the law. Soon 
after locating at the county seat he served two years as prosecuting attorney for 
Scott county; then four years as county superintendent of schools, and still later 
as prosecuting attorne\- another term. 

He was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in the sessions 
of 1868-69 and 11X69-70 ; represented his county in the state senate in 1871, 1873, 
1874, 1875 and 1876, and went on the bencli in January, 1877, for a term of seven 
years. He is a studious man, well posted on law points, clear, conscientious and 
impartial. 

The political affiliations of judge MacDonald have always been with the 
democratic part)'. In 1871 he was the democratic candidate for attorney-general 
of the state. 



HON. JAMES GILFILLAN, 

SA/iVT PALL. 

TAMES GILPILLAN, one of the members of the supreme bench of Minne- 
J sota, is a son of James Gilhllan, and was born in Bannockburn, Scotland, on the 
9th of March, 1829. Before he was a year old his parents immigrated to the United 
States, settling at New Hartford, Oneida county. New York. James worked on 
a farm, and attended a district school three or four months annually, until sixteen 
or seventeen years old ; then read law in Chenango county ; subsequently attend- 
ed the law school at Balston Spa, and was admitted to practice at a term of the 
supreme court held in Albany in December, 1850. 

Mr. Gilfillan then went to Buffalo and continued his legal studies with H. N. 
Walker, Esq.; commenced practice in that city in 1853, and was in partnership 
with josiah Cook three or four years. 

in the spring of 1857 Mr. Gilfillan settled in .Saint Paul, and soon had a 
remunerative practice. In 1862 he enlisted in the military service, going in as 
captain of company H, 7tli Minnesota Infantry; served the first year on the 
frontier, it being the time of the Sioux outbreak; went south in 1863; served 
fifteen months longer in the 7th regiment ; then became colonel of the i ith Min- 
nesota, and in that capacity remained until the rebellion collapsed. 



f 



. THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 595 

Since the close of the war Colonel Gilfillan has been in the steady practice of 
his profession, except when on the bench. In July, i86g, there being a vacancy 
on the supreme bench, caused by the resignation of Chief-justice Thomas Wilson, 
Governor Marshall appointed him chief-justice, and he served till the January 
following. In March, 1875, a vacancy occurred the second time, on account of 
the resignation of Chief-justice S. J. R. McMillan, and by appointment of Gov- 
ernor Davis, Judge Gilfillan again became chief-justice. In November following 
he was elected by the people for a term of seven years, which term will expire on 
the 1st of January, 1883. As a jurist, he stands high; is profound, clear in his 
charge to a jury, and impartial — a credit to the young state on whose bench 
he sits. 

Judge Gilfillan was originally a whig, and has voted with the republican party 
since its formation. He is not an active politician. 

He is a member of the Christ Episcopal church. Saint Paul, and senior warden 
of the same. 

On the 4th of June, 1867, Miss Martha McMasters, of Saint Paul, became 
the wife of Judge Gilfillan, and they have six children. 



HON. PATRICK H. RAHILLY, 

LAKE cirr. 

PATRICK HENRY RAHILLY, one of the heavy farmers and stock-raisers 
of Minnesota, was born on the 8th of March, 1834, in Limerick, Ireland; 
descendant of two old Irish families, his parents being Mathew and Mary (Linch) 
Rahilly, vi^ell-to-do farming people. Our subject received an academic education 
in the old country, where he spent the winters attending school and the summers 
on his father's farm until he was about seventeen years old, when, owing to ex- 
isting "hard times" at home, the family immigrated to the new world. They 
settled on a farm in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. After spending one 
year here, with the rest of the family, Patrick " struck out" for himself, going to 
Cayuga county, New York, in 1852, where he spent two years engaged as a farm 
hand. 

Mr. Rahilly was entirely dependent on himself for support, and when he 
started in life on his own account he did so amono- stranoers, and without a dollar 



596 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

in his pocket, but he had the abihty and inclination to work his way to success. 
These two years in New York, and the succeeding two in Minnesota, whither he 
went in 1854, were hard, toilsome years, spent in working on farms by the month, 
with small wages and long hours. His first two years in Minnesota were passed 
in the employ of Hon. W. D. Lowry. of Rochester. The next two years were 
spent in Mr. Lowry's banking-office. Mr. Rahilly laughs now when he recalls 
that time, when outside they had a sign which indicatc-il a general hanking antl 
exchange business, and inside they only hail fifty dollars. ProhabU' that was 
only their paid up capital, however. In 1858 he preempted a cjuartcr-section of 
land in Wabasha county, his present home; returned to Rochester, where he had 
entered into a partnership with Mr. Lowry, and remained two years longer there ; 
superintended Mr. Lowry's business, including banking and a large farm, having 
one-half interest. 

In i860 Mr. Rahilly removed, with his newly-wedded wife, to his previously 
preempted farm in Wabasha county, where he built him a comfortable home, and 
where he still lives. His quarter-section has e\[)anded into a vast farm of nearly 
two thousand acres of land, all under cultivation, wheat being the principal prod- 
uct. He has been honestly industrious, and certainly most successful, and if 
he adds much more he will soon be able to say, like Robinson Crusoe, that he is 
monarch of all he survcvs. His dwelling and tenant-houses are situated about 
the center of the farm ; he employs about fifteen men steadily, and during harvest 
and threshing seasons this number is increased to about one hundred. He is 
also interested in raising thorough-bred stock, short-horn and jersey, intending 
to make it an important branch of his business. Mr. Rahilly gives to the man- 
ao-ement of his farm and business his personal attention, and to that tact he 
doubtless owes his gratifying success. But he has not been allowed to devote 
his whol(> time to his own aflairs. The pulilic have recognized in him fine execu- 
tive- ability, and have fretpiently called him to fill imixirtant offices of honor and 
trust. Wo has always been democratic in politics, antl in 1S74 that [)art\- elected 
him to the; lower house in the state legislature, and again in 1877. In 1878 he 
was elected to the state senate. In 1875 he was nominated for state auditor, and 
although he ran fiir ahead of his ticket he failed of election, his party being an 
almost hopeless minority. In the legislatiu'e Mr. Rahilly takes an active interest 
in all (luestions of public importance, and zealously ami faithtulK- works for the 
oood of his constituents. 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 597 

Religiously, he is a member of the Catholic church, and one of its most influ- 
ential supporters. 

On the 23d of August, i860, he wedded Miss Catherine Norton, at Winona, 
Minnesota. She is a daughter of James Norton, of county Galway, Ireland. 
They have six children living, — four daughters and two sons ; the two eldest 
(daughters) are being educated in Saint Paul, and the others are at home. 



HON. HORACE B. STRAIT, 

SHAKOPEE. 

THE biographical history of the larger part of the public men of this country, 
and more particularly of western men, shows that they were self-reliant and 
self-educated, and worked their way up to their positions of trust and honor 
solely by their own inherent powers and perseverance. The subject of this 
sketch received no mental training in boyhood beyond what an ordinary district 
school afforded ; after that period attended to his own education ; fitted himself 
for business ; worked his way up gradually, and at the age of forty-three is run- 
ning for a fourth term in cong-ress. 

Horace Burton Strait comes from a patriotic old Virginia family, the progeni- 
tor of it in this country settling in the Old Dominion long before the colonies 
thought of independence. His great-grandfather and eldest son of the same 
were in the first war with the mother country, and his grandfather in the second. 
Horace was born in Potter county, Pennsylvania, on the 26th of January, 1835, his 
parents being Samuel Burton Strait, merchant and farmer, and Emeline Benson. 

In the spring of 1855 ^Ii"- Strait came to Minnesota; opened a farm in Scott 
county, ten miles west of Shakopee ; improved it himself till i860, and then 
moved to the county seat, and here engaged in mercantile business. Two years 
later, on the call for six hundred thousand men to finish up the work of restoring 
the Union, Mr. Strait enlisted as a private ; raised a company ; was made its cap- 
tain — company I, 9th Minnesota Infantry; was promoted to major in 1864, on 
the death of Colonel Wilkin, and was mustered out with the regiment at Fort 
Snelling, in August, 1865. During the last year that he was in the army he 
served on the stafT of General McArthur as inspector-general of first division, 

sixteenth army corps. 
67 



598 THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

Since the rebellion closed Mr. Strait has been engaged in milling, banking 
and farming, being one of the most energetic, efficient and successful business- 
men in Scott county. He Is president of the First National Bank of Shakopee, 
which he helped organize in 1866. 

Mr. Strait was mayor of Shakopee in 1870, 1871 and 1872. On the formation 
of a third congressional district in Minnesota, in 1872 Mr. Strait was selected by 
the republicans of the second district for tht-ir candidate for congress. It was 
reo-arded b)- his political confreres as the onl\' doubtful district in the state, and 
many democrats expected their party would carry it; Ijut Mr. Strait was elected, 
and it lias had no other representative at the national capitol,and seems to want 
no other. 

In the forty-third congress Mr. Strait was on the committee on public build- 
ings and grounds, and in the forty-fourth and forty-fifth congresses on the com- 
mittee on military affairs. He is known as a worker, rather than speaker, and 
stands well before the country, as well as in his own state. Some of his reports 
made to congress displayed marked ability, especially the one on "equalization 
of bounties," made on the i 7th of June, 1S78 ; it breathes a generous, patriotic spirit. 

He has always been a republican ; is a Master Mason, and an attendant at 
the Presbyterian church. 

Mr. Strait was first married in January, 1867, his wife being Miss Helen Par- 
sons, of Troy, Pennsylvania. She died in May, 1872, leaving one child. His 
second marriage was in March, 1877, to Mrs. Jenny Antibus, of Toledo, Ohio. 



HON. MORTIN S. WILKINSON, 

WELJ.S. 

MORTIN SMITH WILKINSON, son of Alfred and Susan Smith Wil- 
kinson, was born in Skaneateles, Onondaga county. New York, on the 22d 
of January, 1819. He received an academic education in his native town ; taught 
school six months; read law at Skaneateles ; was admitted to the bar at .Syracuse 
in 1842 ; moved to Eaton Rapids, Michigan ; practiced there till 1847. 

In 1849, when the Territory of Minnesota was formed, Mr. Wilkinson was 
elected to the first legislature, which met in the autumn of that year. He made 
Saint Paul his home from that date, remaining there, in the practice of his pro- 



THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 599 

fession, until 1857, when he settled in Mankato. He was soon afterward selected 
by the legislature, in connection with others, to draft a code of laws for the state, 
which work he performed in 1859. 

In 1859 Mr. Wilkinson was elected to the United States senate, and served 
for six years. 

After his time had expired in the United States senate, Mr. Wilkinson was 
elected (1868) to the lower house of congress, serving one term. He was a 
member of the state senate in 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1877. 



HON. DAVID OLMSTED, 

WINONA. 

DA\'ID OLMSTED was born in Fairfax, Franklin county, Vermont, on the 
5th of May, 1822. In 1840 he settled upon a claim in Iowa, which he 
worked until the fall of 1844, when he embarked in the Indian trade, near Fort 
Atkinson, Iowa. In the autumn of 1845 he was elected, from the district in which 
he lived, as a member of the convention to frame a constitution for a state eov- 
ernment. The convention assembled in May, 1846, at Iowa City, and consisted 
of thirty-three members. We might mention, as a fact showing the primitive 
mode of traveling in Iowa at that early day, that a prominent citizen of Min- 
nesota (Hon. L. B. Hodges) saw Mr. Olmsted on his way to the convention, 
riding a bare-backed mule, with a rope halter. 

In the spring of 1854 Mr. Olmsted was elected the first mayor of Saint Paul. 
In 1855 he removed to Winona, then a village of a few houses, and devoted his 
energies to building up that now flourishing city. 

In the fall of 1856 his health began failing him, and he was advised to spend 
the winter in Cuba, which he did, but it failed to check the progress of the dis- 
ease which was consuming him. His strong constitution and tenacity of will 
resisted the rapid inroad of the destroyer somewhat, but he felt that his end 
could not be far off He returned, therefore, to Minnesota, and after visiting 
his relatives at Monona, Iowa, and Winona, Minnesota, came to Saint Paul to 
see his friends here. It was his last visit, and was taken advantage of by his 
friends to secure the portrait which now hangs in the city hall. He then re- 
turned to his old home in Franklin county, Vermont, to remain at his mother's 



6oo THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

house until the final summons should come. After long months of suffering 
death came to his relief, on the 2d of February, 1861. The news was received 
with sincere regret by his friends in Minnesota, and the press paid warm tributes 
to his worth and integrity. On the map of the state his name is well bestowed 
on one of the most flourishing and populous counties. 



HON. WILLIAM F. DUNBAR, 

CALEDONIA. 

WILLIAM FRANKLIN DUNBAR, the first auditor of the State of 
Minnesota, traces his pedigree back to Scotland, whence his ereat-erand- 
father came prior to the American revolution. He was a son of John and Eliza 
Green Dunbar, and was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, on the loth of Novem- 
ber, 1820. When William was two years old the family moved to Connecticut, 
and two or three years later to Massachusetts, living first at Chester and after- 
ward at .South Hadley Falls. William received onl)- a district-school education, 
but subsequently did a great deal of studying out of school, acquiring a good 
knowledge of all branches necessary for business purposes. 

At twenty-two years of age Mr. Dunbar went into the mercantile trade at 
South Hadley Falls, continuing it thert: lor seven years. Mr. Dunbar visited 
Caledonia in 1853, and the next \ear made a permanent settlement, opening a 
farm of one hundred and sixty acres near town. 

In the autumn of 1857 he was elected auditor of the state ; spent three years 
in Saint Paul, and in 1861 returned to Caledonia. 

Mr. Dunbar was in thu territorial legislature in the winter of 1855-56; was 
county commissioner from 1862 to 1867, and has held other local otfices. 

He is a public-spirited man, and likes to "push things," — all enterprises that 
will inure to the good of the place. 

Mr. Dunbar is a Master Mason. His wife was Miss Lucretia P. Rice, of South 
Hadley Falls, Massachusetts; their marriage taking place in August, 1843. They 
have had eleven children, and lost four of them. 



INDEX. 



Adams, Gen. C. P., M.D . . 
Adams, Hon. Samuel E . . . 

Aldrich, Hon. Cyrus 

Ames, Albert A., M.D 

Ames, Alfred E., M.D 

Ames, Hon. Jesse 

Archibald, Edward T 

Armstrong, John A 

Armstrong, Hon. T. H. . . . 
Atkinson, Hon. James B.. 

Ayer, Otis, M.D 

Bailey, Hon. Philo C 

Baker, Edward L 

Baker, Gen. James H 

Barnes, Hon. Nathan F. . . 
Barron, Hon. Horace E . . 
Barto, Hon. Alphonso..-. 
Batchelder, Hon. Geo. VV . . 

Beaupre, Bruno 

Becker, George L 

Beebe, Franklin 

Behnke, Henry 

Belfoy, Frank 

Bemis, Nathan M., M.D. . . 

Benson, Hon. Jared 

Berry, Hon. John M 

Berry, Hon. Charles H. . . . 

Bigelow, Horace R 

Billings, Hon. Harrison A . 
Bishop, Gen. Judson W. . . 

Black, Capt. Mahlon 

Borup, Charles W. W 

Braden, Hon. William W . . 

Brill, Hon. Haskell R 

Brown, Major Joseph R. . . 

Brown, Orville 

Brown, Hon. Luther M.. 
Brown, Hon. John H . . . . 
Buckham, Hon. Thomas S 
Burrows, Hon. Randall K 
Burt, Rev. David 



Hastings 480 

Monticello 429 

Minneapolis .... 19 
Minneapolis .... 577 
Minneapolis.... 573 

Northfield 87 

Dundas 434 

Fairmont 432 

Albert Lea 210 

Forest City .... 91 

Le Sueur 90 

Waseca 135 

Red Wing 406 

Mankato 166 

Saint Cloud. . - . 126 

Faribault 171 

Sauk Center. ... 517 

Faribault 334 

Saint Paul 318 

Saint Paul 75 

Minneapolis .... 533 

New Ulm 314 

Litchfield 241 

Faribault 176 

Anoka 203 

Faribault 280 

Winona 80 

Saint Paul 60 

Spring Valley . . 315 

Saint Paul 413 

Minneapolis .... 457 

Saint Paul 10 

Preston 263 

Saint Paul 579 

Saint Paul 592 



. Shakopee 114 

.WiUmar 248 

.Faribault 183 

.Pine City 279 

Saint Paul 242 



Butler, Henry C 

Butterfield, Marcus Q.... 

Butters, Hon. Reuben 

Cady, Resolvo O., M.D... 
Cameron, Hon. Daniel. . . . 
Campbell, Hon. Samuel L. 

Capser, Hon. Joseph 

Carli Christopher, M.D 

Case, Hon. John H 

Chandler, Martin S 

Chatfield, Hon. Andrew G. 
Child, Hon. James E . . . . 

Clarke, Nehemiah P 

Clarke, Hon. Ziba B 

Clement, Hon. Thomas B. 
Coggswell, Hon. Amos. . . . 
Colburn, Hon. Nathan P.. 

Cole, James M., M.D 

Cole, Hon. Gordon E 

Colvill, Col. William 

Comstock, Hon. Solomon G 

Cone, Royal D 

Conkey, Hon. Charles H.. 

Cook, Major Michael 

Cornell, Hon. Francis R. E . 
Crosby, Hon. Francis M.. 

Cross, Edwin C, M.D 

Curtis, Gold T 

Davis, Hon. Cushman K. . 

Day, Leonard 

Denison, Hon. L. W., M.D. 
Dickinson, Hon. Daniel A. 
Dike, Major William H. . . - 
Dobbin, Rev. James, A.M. 

Dodge, Levi P., M.D 

Donaldson, Hon. N. M 

Donnelly, Hon. Ignatius.'. . 

Doran, Hon. Michael 

Douglas, James 

Dunbar, Hon. Wm. F 

Dunn, Andrew C 



Rochester 115 

Anoka 286 

Kasota 421 

Buffalo 55 

La Crescent .... 342 

Wabasha 339 

Sauk Center. . . . 554 

Stillwater 206 

Faribault ...... 264 

Redwing 46 

Belle Plaine. ... 557 

Waseca 351 

Saint Cloud .... 449 

Benson 10 1 

Faribault 343 

Owatonna 319 

Preston 323 

Winona 348 

Faribault 442 

Red Wing 268 

.Moorliead 200 

Winona 49 

Preston 321 

Faribault 543 

Minneapolis .... 202 

Hastings 103 

Rochester 475 

Stillwater 496 

Saint Paul 158 

Minneapolis .... 360 

Faribault 259 

Mankato 590 

Faribault 62 

Faribault 381 

Farmington .... 313 

Owatonna 317 

. Nininger 349 

Le Sueur 18 

Moorhead 357 

Caledonia 600 

Winnebago City . 136 



6o2 



INDEX. 



Dunnell, Hon. Mark H...Owatonna 272 

Durant, Edward W Stillwater 99 

DuToit, Hon.'F. E Chaska 270 

Dwelle, Abner Lake City 525 

Easton, Jason C Chatfield 326 

Edgerton, Gen. Alonzo J . . Kasson 404 

Edson, Col. James C Glencoe 325 

Ellison, Hon. Smith Taylor's Falls. . . 322 

Emmett, Hon. Lafayette . .Faribault 588 

Evans, Hon. Louis A Saint Cloud 376 

Farmer, James D Spring Valley . • 474 

Farmer, JHon. John Q Spring Valley . . 568 

Finch, Jeremiah, E., M.D .Hastings 589 

Flandrau, Hon. Chas. E . .Saint Paul 521 

Folsom, Col. Edwin A Stillwater 514 

••■■ 555 



Ford, John D., M.D Winona 

Ford, Hon. Orville 1) Mazeppa 524 

Frankenfield, Hon. Jacob. Henderson 505 

Fridley, Hon. Abram M . .Becker 520 

Frink, Frederick W Faribault 546 

Gale, Rev. Amory Minneapolis 112 

Gale, Samuel C Minneapolis 106 

Gardner, Stephen Hastings 528 

Garrard, Hon. T,ewis H. . .Lake City 587 

Garver, James A., M.D . . .Dodge Center . . 377 

George, Col. James Rochester 385 

Geyermann, Hon. Peter. . .Shakopee 400 

Giddings, Aurora W., ^LD. Anoka 229 

Gilfillan, Hon. CD Saint Paul 36 

Gilfillan, Hon James Saint Paul 594 

Gilman, Hon. Jno. M Saint Paul 586 

Gilman, Hon. Charles A . .Saint Cloud 336 

Goodrich, Hon. Aaron Saint Paul 254 

Goodsell, Charles Howard Lake . . 428 

Gorman, Hon. Willis A . . .Saint Paul 23 

Greenleaf, Hon. W. H . . .Benson 231 

Grinager, Mons Worthington . . . 289 

Griswold, Hon. Henry S . .Chatfield 271 

Hadley, Elbridge D Luverne 446 

Hagan, Martin, M.D Saint Paul 417 

Hahn, William J Lake City 450 

Hall, Hon Wni. S Saint Paul 567 

Hall, Hon, Liberty Glencoe '. 352 

Hancock, Rev. Joseph W . . Red Wing 253 

Harwood, Avery A Austin 431 

Hersey, Hon. Roscoe F. . .Stillwater 261 

Hodges, Hon. Leonard B. .Saint Paul 208 



Holley, Hon. Henry W. . . .Winnebago City . 290 

Horn, Henry J Saint Paul 251 

Houlton, Horatio Elk River 306 

Houlton, Hon. William H.Elk River 307 

Hubbard, Gen. Lucius F. .Red Wing 308 

Hulett, Hon. Luke Faribault 366 

Hunt, Hon. Thomas J . . . . Dodge Center . . 354 

IngersoU, Daniel W Saint Paul 401 

Irgens, John S Saint Paul 39 

John, Prof. D. C, A.M Mankato 355 

Johnson, Hon. Harvey H. .Owatonna 459 

Johnson, Asa E., M.D .... Minneapolis .... 453 

Johnston, Col. George H . . Detroit 487 

Jones, Judge Edwin S . . . . Minneapolis .... 527 

Jones. Hon. John R Chatfield 124 

Jordan, Hon. Chas. B Wadena 54S 

Keith, George H., M.D. . . . Minneapolis. . . . 245 

Kellett, Hon. Thomas P..Zumbrota 47 

Kennedy, Vincent P., M.D.Litchfield 149 

Kerr, Rev. Aaron H Rochester 148 

Kiehle, Prof. D. L. A.M . . .Saint Cloud 247 

Kiester, Hon. Jacob A. . . .Blue Earth City. 144 
Kingsley, Hon. Geo. B. . . .Blue Earth City. 369 

Kinyon, Hon. William R. .Owatonna 130 

Kirby, Joseph P Henderson 537 

Krayenbuhl, Gustave Chaska 127 

Laird, William H Winona 218 

Langdon, Hon. Robt. I!. . .Minneapolis. .. . 551 

Lari)enteur, Auguste L. . . .Saint Paul 50 

Lee, William Saint Paul 412 

Lehmicke, Rudolph Stillwater 455 

Lewis, William F., M.D. . .Mankato 410 

Lincoln, William L., M.D.Wabasha 214 

Livermore, Rev. Edward . .Saint Peter 5<Si 

Loomis, Hon. David B. . . .Stillwater 194 

Lord, Hon. Samuel Faribault 192 

Lowell, Hon. Benjamin A .Waseca 250 

MacDonald, Hon. Jno. L. .Shakopee 593 

McCann, Hon. James Anoka 118 

McClure, Hon. John C Red Wing 152 

McClure, Hon. Charles. . . .Red Wing 151 

McClure, Thomas C Saint Cloud .... 41S 

McComb, James D Stillwater 387 

McHench, Hon. Andrew. .Fargo 96 

McHench, Hon. James. . . .Plain view 94 

Mcllrath, Charles Saint Paul 265 

McKelvy, Hon. James M. .Saint Cloud .... 312 



INDEX. 



603 



McKenny, John H Chatfield 221 

McLaren, Genl. Robert N .Saint Paul 132 

McMullen, Hon. N., M.D. .Shakopee 31 

Maltby, Dexter J. M.D Detroit 373 

Manson, M. H., M.D Shakopee 379 

iVIarshall, Hon. Wm. R Saint Paul 572 

Marvin, Luke Duluth 232 

Mattson, Col. Hans Minneapolis. . . . 500 

Mayo, Hon. Lewis Sauk Rapids ... 116 

Mealey, Hon. T. G Monticello 591 

Merriam, Hon. John L . . .Saint Paul 344 

Merrill, Daniel D Saint Paul 223 

Miller, Hon. Stephen Worthington . . . 538 

Milligan, Francis H., M.D.Wabasha 173 

Mills, Hon. William H . . . . Carver 179 

Mitchell, Hon. William .... Winona 35 

Mitchell, Hon. John B. H.Stillwater 198 

Moore, Alexander Sauk Center. . . . 565 

Moore, Joseph K Saint Peter 225 

Moore, George W Saint Paul 365 

Morehouse, Eli M.. M.D . .Owatonna 93 

Morrison, Hon. Daniel A. .Rochester ^5 

Morrison, Hon. Dorilus . . . Minneapolis .... 71 

Morse, Henderson D Winona 187 

Moss, Hon. Henry L Saint Paul 52 

Murphy, John H., M.D. . .Saint Paul 74 

Murray, Hon. William P . .Saint Paul 372 

Nelson, Hon. R. R Saint Paul 40 

Nelson, Hon. Socrates .... Stillwater 235 

Nickerson, John Q. A . . . . Elk River 556 

Norton, Hon. Daniel S. . . .Winona 267 

Noyes, Prof. J. L., A.M . . . Faribault 510 

Nutting, Hon. Levi Faribault 277 

O'Ferrall, Hon. Ignatius F. Chatfield 460 

Oakes, Charles H Saint Paul 67 

Olmsted, Hon. David Winona 599 

Otis, Hon. George L Saint Paul 66 

Owens, Capt. John P Taylor's Falls . . 438 

Palmer, Benj. R., M.D Sauk Center 563 

Patton, George Lake City 388 

Patton, Geo. R., A.M. M.D . Lake City 97 

Peck, Harrison J Shakopee 403 

Perkins, Hon. Oscar F Northfield 422 

Pfaender, Hon. William . . . New Ulm 54 

Pillsbury, Gov. John S . . . . Minneapolis .... 5 

Pcehler, Henry & Co Henderson 420 

Pray, Otis A Minneapolis 424 



Prince, Hon. John S Saint Paul 44 

Proctor, John S Stillwater 416 

Rahilly, Hon. Patrick H. .Lake City 595 

Ramsey, Hon. Alexander. .Saint Paul 26 

Rand, Hon. Alonzo C ... Minneapolis. .. . 233 

Randall, Hon. Benjamin H.Saint Peter 164 

Rea, John P Minneapolis. . . . 479 

Reed, Lieutenant A. H Glencoe 490 

Reed, Hon. John A Stillwater 244 

Rice, Hon. Henry M Saint Paul 104 

Rice, Hon. Edmund Saint Paul 56 

Richardson, Hon. Nathan. Little Falls 128 

Roberts, William H Lanesboro 545 

Rogers, Chas. F Lake City 582 

Russell, Hon. Jeremiah. . . .Sauk Rapids ... 518 

Sanborn, Gen. John B Saint Paul 558 

Sanders, Rev. Edwin C. . .Le Sueur 398 

Sargent, Joseph A Chaska 19: 

Schimmel, William Saint Peter 486 

Scofield, John L., M.D Northfield 468 

Searle, Dolson B Saint Cloud. ... 61 

Secombe, David A Minneapolis 175 

Seidenbush, Right-Rev. R.Saint Cloud.... 534 

Setzer, Hon. Henry N Stillwater 281 

Severance, Hon. Martin J.Mankato 156 

Shaubut, Henry Mankato 143 

Shaver, Ulysses B Kasson 227 

Shaw, John M Minneapolis. . . . 181 

Sheehan, Col. Timothy J. .Albert Lea. ... . 304 

Sibley, General H. H Saint Paul 12 

Sidle, Henry G Minneapolis .... 215 

Sidle, Jacob K Minneapolis .... 154 

Simpson, Hon. Thomas. . .Winona 396 

Skinner, Hon. Geo. E. ... Faribault 284 

Slingerland, Teunis S Mantorville .... 147 

Smith, Hon. y\bner C Litchfield 32 

Smith, Hon. Christopher H.Windom 380 

Smith, Hon. Edson R Le Sueur 489 

Smith, Jr., Hon. James Saint Paul 86 

Smith, Hon. Robert I Austin 174 

Smith, Hon. Warren Waseca 368 

Smith, William H., M.D... Albert Lea 201 

Smith, Vespasian, M.D Duluth 375 

Snow, George D Le Sueur 89 

Sprague, Ara D Caledonia 465 

Sprague, Hon. Benjamin D . Rushford 485 

Squires, James P., M.D. . ..'Austin 478 



6o4 



INDEX. 



Stacy, Hon. Edwin C 

Stacy, Hon. James N 

Stannard, Hon Lucas K. . . 
Staples, Franklin, M.D. . . . 
Stearns, Hon. Ozora P. . . . 

Stebbins, Columbus 

Stevens, Col. John H 

Stewart, Solomon P 

Stocker, Capt. Henry D. . . 

Stoever, Hon. John C 

Strait, Hon. Horace R.... 
Sweet, Hon. Cieorge VV . . . . 
Sweney, William W., M.D. . 

Swift, Hon. Henry A 

Taylor, Col. W. H. H 

Taylor, Hon. Jackson 

Tefft, Nathaniel S., M.D.. 
Thompson, Hon. Edward. . 

Todd, Irving 

Tubbs, William 

Tyrer, Ashley M 

Van Cleve, Gen. Horatio P . 
Vanderburgh, Hon. C. E. . 
Van Vorhes, Hon, Abraham, 
Waite, Hon. Franklin H... 

Waite, Hon. Henry C 

Wakefield, Hon. James B. . 
Walbank, Samuel S., M.D. 



Albert Lea .... 
Monticello , . . . 
Taylor's Falls. . 

Winona 

Duluth 

Hastings 

Minneapolis . . . . 
Northfield . . . . . 

Lake City 

Henderson 

Shakopee 



liismarck 

Red Wing 

Saint Peter 

Saint Paul 

Buffalo 

Plainview 

Hokah 

Hastings 

Monticello 

Albert Lea 

Minneapolis . . . . 
Minneapolis . ■ . . 

Stillwater 

Mankato 

Saint Cloud. . . . 
Blue Earth City. 
Duluth 



153 
123 

456 

193 
120 

178 
470 
196 
384 
157 
597 
139 
142 
162 
394 
2,2,1 
359 
370 
340 
331 
138 
506 

78 
447 
509 
466 
287 
217 



Walker, Hon. Orange 

Washburn, Hon. Wni. D. . . 

Waterman, Hon. C. N 

Weber, Hon. William F. . . . 

Welch, Thomas 

Welch, John H 

Wells, Hon. Reuben 

Wells, William S 

.Wells, Henry R 

West, Capt. Josiah E 

Wheelock, Hon. Lewis L. . 
Whipple, Rt.-Rev. Henry B 

White, Hon. Milo 

Whiting, Hon. E. D., M.D. 

Wilcox, Ozias 

Wilder, .-\mherst H 

Wilkinson, Hon. Mortin S. 

Williams, John F 

Willson, Charles C 

Wilson, Hon. Eugene M.. 

Wilson, Hon. Thos 

Wilson, Hudson 

Yale, Hon. William H.... 
Young, Hon. Austin H . . . . 
Young, Hon. George B . . . . 

Young, Henry J., M.D 

Young, Hon. ^^■illiam C. . . 
Zapp, John 



Marine 

Minneapolis . . . . 

Winona 

Hokah 

Henderson 

Winnebago City . 

Preston 

Forest Mills. . . . 

Preston 

Saint Cloud . . . 

Owatonna 

.Faribault 

Chatfield 

Taylor's Falls. . . 

Plainview 

Saint Paul 

Wells 

Saint Paul 

Rochester 

Minneapolis . . . . 

Winona 

Faribault 

Winona 

Minneapolis . . . . 

Saint Paul 

Waseca 

Waseca 

Saint Cloud . • • • 



189 
236 
84 
469 
228 
423 
542 
5'5 
544 
477 
205 
580 
499 
197 
535 
362 

598 

552 
184 
282 

564 
220 

37 
436 
464 

441 
452 
435 



Iir XI 22 









^b. 



'.«'.' 









































6 -;> 









i4 z . z ' 



,0^ * ' " ° ' 'c- vV 

,\* ^ ■■' '•' '" "^'^ 



x^ 



,^^ 






4- ; 











